Ebjournal Revisited.

Boot to the head, Kicked to the Curb, Das Boot

Tony| Category: General, All about me, Home Improvement | 4 Comments

Currently in your area, 75 degrees, under clear skies. Nice. Back to you.

Some updates during the eye of the hurricane of my summer…

Many of you know we’re planning on buying a house. Well, it’s been delayed, and delayed again, but things are starting to go into motion. I had called the mortgage company last week to go forward with the loan application. It got sent to me on Tuesday. All 6.0222 x 10^23 pages of it. When I spoke with the loan officer, he also asked me if I had a purchase contract. Being new to this, and since we’re buying the place from my parents, I reacted coolly, and said I would fax it to him. Of course, I hadn’t even thought about a purchase contract. I prompted called my mom, (Hi Mom!) and she took care of finding the right forms. However, this all sent me into a near panic, because becoming a homeowner is rapidly approaching reality. After the deeee-lightful hangover Wednesday, I went to my parent’s house to work out the purchase contract. That was fun– it was trickier than I thought it would be, but ‘twixt Mom and me, we figured it out. Only to realize late last night, among the three thousand pages that TLEMK had to initial, that we had forgotten the signature that sealed the deal; the one from the Seller that agreed to the Buyer’s offer. I awoke this morning determined to GSD (sorta like GTD, but with more vehemence). And GSD I did. I speak to you, gentle readers, because I can’t believe my procrastinorial (my Ebjournal, my words) got this much sh*t done:

1) Finished filling out loan applications, including double checking that everything was initialed and filled out, pulled the W-2’s, the bank records, the pay stubs, and the government-issued ideas, copied said stuff, and wrote a cover letter to the loan officer.

2) Spoke with said loan officer, figured out what was going on with some questions I had, and finished the loan application.

(After doing this much stuff, normally Summer Tony would want a nap. Nay, readers, there was more Stuff to be Done.)

3) Sallied forth to my parent’s/soon to be our house to collect aforementioned signature.

4) Spoke with investment company about divesting myself of some shares. Wrote the letter of authorization, went to the safe deposit box, and collected the stock certificate.

5) Went to the post office to mail said stock certificate, along with authorization letter, via registered mail. Pricey.

6) Went to Kinko’s to copy all of the loan application stuff, and mailed it via FedEx, which is conveniently now in a symbiotic relationship with Kinko’s.

(Still haven’t gotten my nap…. bah! Stupid Panicky T, worried about GSD)

7) Came home, ate leftover wings. Normally, I reheat leftovers, but Frantastic’s are delicious cold.

8) Called Allstate, because apparently they have nice hands that I would be good in. I secured a quote and a pending policy for the new house. (And yes, Mom, I got replacement insurance. )

9) Went to the doctor’s office for a re-evaluation of the ankle.

The doctor was pleased with how it’s coming along, as in there was no pain as he torqued it around. He also told me that the MRI showed a decent tear in one of the ligaments, and that I had a bone bruise, which explained the extra pain. So I really wasn’t a nancy pants. He gave me some instructions for rehabbing it, and made no mention of physical therapy, which I thought was great. And then he told me some great news: NO MORE BOOT. That’s right folks, das boot is gone. Now I get to wear the aircast for about a month, and he said I can try some regular exercising in a few weeks. Until then, plenty of stretching exercises. An unfortunate side effect of the aircast is that I have to wear socks, something I’ve managed to avoid since June 9th. So shoes are coming back. This also means I have to find the left shoes I haven’t worn since May 17th (Which shall forever be known in my heart as The Day God said, “See? See why running is bad for you? I smote you, but lovingly. Look, I even saved your sandwich…”)

Done for the day, I came home, talked to TLEMK via technology, and read a book. Now I’ve come to the part where past me has caught up to present me, and you know way more than you wanted to about my lazy (ish) summer day. Tomorrow some of the CU crew rolls in (I think) for the DMB weekend. And then the Fourth is upon us. Plans are currently up in the air, save for the Warrenville parade at 6 pm on Monday night. Always a good time, the parade is.

Also, a belated thank you to Chuck and Crissy for hosting a terrific getaway last weekend. It was a wonderfully relaxing time on Saturday, and no one screamed at the site of so much pasty white skin. I loved the water, the boat, and the company. I also enjoyed the trouncing of Kenny and Marc in cribbage.

So now you’re caught up. Back to reading for me. If you made it this far, you are either a glutton, or very nosy.

Nothing’s Right I’m Torn…

Tony| Category: General, Sports and Wine | 5 Comments

(Editor’s note: TK has been working on this post for a while, which is why it may seem choppy when you read it. And he can’t write.)

Dumb sports radio
I don’t who to choose now
The tuner is mad

Attempting to reestablish lighthearted conversation on Ye Olde Ebjournal has been tough lately. But one particular topic has been sticking in my craw, and I’ve meant to write about it for months now. So let’s abandon thoughtful conversation (HA!) and relegate the next 3.6 minutes of our lives thinking about the state of sports radio in the Windy City.

When I was in middle school, ( or as I like to call them “The Wonder Years”), I had a hard time falling asleep in my deep, dark, scary basement bedroom. This is mostly because I realized that if something were ever to happen to me, no one would know because I could blast my stereo to the point of dain bramage, and no one on the second floor would hear anything other than a gentle breeze emanating from my speakers. In other words, I was isolated. Because of the silence in the basement that was only occassionally punctured by the sounds of creaking footsteps (in reality, the furnace getting ready to kick in) I needed something to keep me company as I tried to keep my mind off my impending doom. (And you think I’m paranoid NOW…) I didn’t like watching TV late at night, so I turned to the radio to help me. For a long time, I listened to jazz. I loved WBEZ 91.5’s jazz program that started after 9:00pm, and still will listen to it when I’m looking for good working/background music. However, I discovered that the low jazz wailings tended to influence my dreams. A mournful trumpet would be a baby crying, and drums fills turned into things breaking and falling down on me. So, I needed something else. I turns out I liked hearing human voices, as it let me have some connection to the outside world.

I turned, my friends, to Sports Radio.

Back in the day, the WSCR was just starting, and ESPN radio didn’t come on at night. After a few twiddles of the tuner, I was able to find the Score on 820 am. I became hooked by people who wanted to talk about sports, ALL THE TIME. As a pseudo-geek growing up (and presently a super-pseudo geek) I sometimes found that it is/was hard to talk about sports with my less-than-enthused sports buddies (Sorry, Zigzag. )

And thus, the addiction was born. Throw in a recent discovery of fantasy league sports, and we find me wasting my subwoofer in my car on the banal discussions of who was the best Bears right tackle in history. (My money’s on Keith Van Horne, FWIW)

For a long time, I was a loyal Scorehead, Scoreguy, Scorewhore, whatever you want to call it. The signal boomed all the way down to Champaign, and made my cured my longing to hear discussion of something other than soy prices and the state of the Illini football team (both bad).

And then stuff happened.

I moved back to the Chicago area, and discovered that there was another sports radio station: WMVP, ESPN 1000. Initially, I didn’t like it because too much of it was national, and I liked my sports local. And, I knew the personalities, their schticks (Who you Crappin’? What’s your Beef? Tool of the Week! 5 Team Parlay, all the good stuff) and the schedule at 670 am. Yet, slowly, the people at es pin are turning me to the dark side.

The reason for the change is threefold:

1) Commercials.
I sit in my car a lot, as I drive between 1.5 and 2 hours per day to educmacate the minds of the NW suburbs. I haven’t proven this yet, but I can almost guarantee you that the Score’s commericials are longer. Even though 1000 has more updates, which take away from content, at least it’s sports-related, and not another advertisment for Heavenly Bodies. Annoyingly, because of these updates on both channels, most of the time both stations are on commercial together. But the Score crams at least one or two more in between segments. (Update: Boers and Bernstein are trying to go 25 minutes at a stretch now, which is great, but makes commercials 7-8 minutes, especially during peak times.)
2) Playing roulette with the schedule.
Who’s going to be on:

The Score has been fiddling with their schedule for about a year now. They finally seemed to have put Boers and Bernstein on during the afternoons to directly compete with Mac, Jurko, and Harry on WMVP. I also absolutely cannot stand Mike North any longer. His voice grates on me, and everything he does is all about him being this great guy. He does good things, but tells us about it all the time. Drives me bat shit. This, followed by Hanley and Mulligan, who are not the best radio people in the world (still very rough around the edges… they should stick to sports writing, which they’re both good at) and then Murph.

Oh, Murph. You’ve been put out to pasture. First, they tried you solo from 6-11 at night, because you should be better than Mongo McMichael. Then they put you solo from 10-12. Now they’ve got you on from 12-2, paired with Jesse Rogers, the best Bruce Weber I’ve ever heard, but one of the worst sports talk hosts. (I put him under North, and the ever-absent Dan Patrick) It may be time to hang the every day mic up, and be a guest host. So now, it’s painful radio on 670 from 6am-2pm. I still enjoy Boers and Bernstein, and the Me Show (Lawrence Holmes= Does HF proud, though I miss the “Me and Z Show”.)
3) It hurts.

6am-2pm is unbearable. However, 1000 hasn’t done much to convert me totally. Mike and mIke are good, and I’ve come to appreciate their ability to cover most of the major sports, instead of just baseball/football. Rosenbloom and Salisbury follow at 9-12, and they are working out the kinks– neither have a strong mainstream Chicago sports angle. And they bicker. Then comes The Dan Patrick Show, starring Dan Patrick 25% of the time. When he is on, he sticks to one topic, for about three hours. Also,
Finally, Mac, Jurko, and Harry. These guys are good, they cover a variety of sports, they’re funny, and they seem down to earth. They also continue to shoot themselves in the foot.

WMVP has done a good job of luring away talent (Rosenbloom, MacNeil, and J. Hood… why can’t people give J. Hood some more love. Dude knows his sports, but can’t get a regular slot to save his life!)

I sincerely hope that one of these radio stations gets their act together. Until then, I will continue to switch between the two and remain unsatisfied.

Any thoughts? Feel free to comment, and vote in the new poll!

Fantasy Baseball Line of the Weak.

Tony| Category: General, Sports and Wine | 0 Comments

Last week, I played the last place team in fantasy baseball. I currently reside in 11th place out of 12 (Update: I’m tied for tenth, or eleventh, depending how you look at it). These last two weeks I played the tenth and twelveth place teams, and I have battled to a tie. This was a chance for me to get some wins. It didn’t happen. My frustration culminated late on Sunday afternoon, where I saw this line out of my ‘elite’ fantasy players:

Sunday : 1/23, .043 avg, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 RUN, 0 SB.

I have way too many streaky players. As DaveJo tells me, maybe I’ll be a second half team. I just hope I wasn’t a first-month team.

Stupid fantasy team.

Because it’s a great song… and deep man, deeeeeeep.

Tony| Category: General | 1 Comment

(Comedy is a defense mechanism? Never!)

Overkill

Colin Hay

I can’t get to sleep
I think about the implications
Of diving in too deep
And possibly the complications

Especially at night
I worry over situations
I know I’ll be alright
Perhaps it’s just imagination

Day after day it reappears
Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away

Alone between the sheets
Only brings exasperation
It’s time to walk the streets
Smell the desperation

At least there’s pretty lights
And though there’s little variation
It nullifies the night from overkill

Day after day it reappears
Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away
Come back another day

I can’t get to sleep
I think about the implications
Of diving in too deep
And possibly the complications

Especially at night
I worry over situations
I know I’ll be alright
It’s just overkill

Day after day it reappears
Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away
Ghosts appear and fade away
Ghosts appear and fade away

All you can eat sushi boats

Tony| Category: General | 5 Comments

All you can eat sushi boats

Originally uploaded by bonemuse2004.

17 plates each we have conquered it

Terra Firma

Tony| Category: General, Entertainment Tonight, Chomping on Books, All about me | 2 Comments

It’s great to be back among the flatlanders.

California is a nice place to visit. The weather is beautiful, the people are beautiful, the cars are beautiful, and the land itself is gorgeous. Everything is growing in California– there are plants everywhere, and yet it doesn’t feel like a jungle. And everything is so darn tasteful. The roofs all match in souther Cali.– stucco of various earth tones that make you feel like it’s all one big happy family. I see why some people think it’s a paradise, and why people miss it so much.

But it’s not home for me, and I’m not sure it would ever feel like home. Scary as it sounds, I like the fact that the weather changes here in the Midwest at a moment’s notice, and that I might need a jacket the same day I go swimming in Lake Michigan.

Regardless, I’m just happy to be back on the planet, instead of 32,000 feet above it. Don’t even get me started on the MD80 that had to make an emergency landing at O’Hare this morning. Had I been on that plane, that would have been it. After cleaning up my pants, I probably would have started investing in RV’s and cruise ships. For now, I’m happy I wasn’t, because it means that I will get back on an airplane again. Someday, but probably not in 2006.

So it’s great to be back in Illinois. V and I are switching roles– she’s super busy grad student, and I get to do grad school casually. This means the cat and I are spending time together. It won’t end well.

The rest of the California trip was fun. We went to Hollywood, and did the touristy stuff; the walk of fame, the hand/footprints outside Grauman’s Theatre, and we saw Cars at the restored El Capitan Theatre. Of course, we ate at In ‘N’ Out… On Saturday, we went to the Santa Barbara Mission and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Both were good sources of information for the local region, and had nice exhibits. The mission is in really good shape for 200+ years. (I’m guessing it has to do with the weather.) The museum had a random exhibit on frogs, which I took a decent amount of pictures. I’ll try to use some of them in the classroom next year, but for now, I put some of them on my flickr page, so you can see what I did.

I also got to read a lot on the trip, and for me, instead of grad school.  I continued reading a fantasy series (Child of Flame by Kate Elliot) which I’ll get more into later.  Currently, I have my fingers in three other books.

Dreams From my Father is the autobiography written by Barack Obama before he became a senator.  It’s a pretty interesting read.  It gives me a little more insight into who he is, and I feel like he is very candid in it.

On the recommendation of Minneapolis Red Sox, I’m reading Summer of ‘49 by David Halberstram. Just started it on the train yesterday, but I love baseball, and I’ve always been fascinated by DiMaggio and Williams, and the writing is good so far.
The most interesting book I’m reading right now is called  Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball’s Lunatic Fringe.  It’s written by Sam Walker, a sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal.  It’s about his attempt to break into the elite circle of fantasy baseball. It’s a quick read, and really engaging, especially if you thought you were obsessed with fantasy baseball.  These people are truly obsessed, but have changed the way we evaluate talent and the way statistics are used in the game.  I highly recommend it if you love fantasy (fanalytic) baseball.
Next up: Getting finances in order, cleaning, healing, and grad school. It definitely doesn’t get any less busy until maybe March of next year.

It’s great to be home.

In my happy place

Tony| Category: General | 8 Comments

In my happy place

Originally uploaded by bonemuse2004.

In n out thank the Lord

Hollywood

Tony| Category: General | 1 Comment

Hollywood

Originally uploaded by bonemuse2004.

At the el capitan in Hollywood

Really? I’ve only been out of school for a week? Really?

Tony| Category: General, Sports and Wine, School Daze, Entertainment Tonight, All about me | 2 Comments

Yes.

Since last Wednesday, the official last day of the school, it’s been a whirlwind. Here’s what I’ve done in the last eight days (in order)

Wednesday (the 7th): Finished school. Tried really hard not to cry. Blamed pheremones of female teachers and dust as I told the kids that I would miss them. Went to Weber Grill with the staff, enjoyed whiskey. Travelled to beautiful Bellwood, Illinois, avoided getting shot, and picked up my RoboCop moon boot for my ankle, 3 1/2 weeks after I sprained my ankle. I love the HMO system.

Thursday: Started the day with an MRI. Nothing says “Happy Vacation!” like waking up at the same time and torquing your ankle to hold it in a painful position for 50 minutes. For the record, MRI’s don’t bother me. Not finding anything out (more on this later) does. Went back and finished cleaning up/hiding my mess in my classroom so that summer school could move in. Then me, TLEMK, Frank the Tank, and Mrs. Frank the Tank went to the Sox game. My first game in twelve years, and naturally, they lost. I was the big winner, because it was dollar dog night. Those poor hog anuses never had a chance. We stayed downtown with Dev and C (shout out!) in their lovely apt.
Friday: Dev and C left for work, so V and I walked up to the Mexican restaurant for lunch ( I had a jumbo margarita– nothing like zero to buzzed in ten minutes!) Limped back to the apt., and then met the Zigzags in the theatre district for the Flecktones concert. The concert was good, as usual. This was the fourth time I’ve seen them, and the second time with such a mixed crowd of hippies and season-ticket holders of the Chicago Theatre. I did get a decent photo:

but nothing on the inside. I got sleepy in the second act, but that’s okay.

Saturday: Went to TLEMK’s uncle’s wedding. Sounds weird, but he’s only a few years older than us. Got to see some of V’s family (”Is that Aunt Tess, or Aunt Bess?”) and meet some of V’s cousins from out of state. They thought I was funny. Or a funny drunk. One of the two. Regardless, I already posted my picture of my pyramid of Jacks and Cokes. I also managed to get my future sister-in-law to play the “Match Tony drink-for-drink game” which never ends well, right Kenny? I had a good time at the wedding.

Sunday: Woke up slowly. We went to the after wedding brunch, and then stopped by my parents house to say hi. That evening we invited the Zigzags over for Sweet Tomatoes because we are paying them to be our friends. It’s nice to have paid for friends.

Monday: Grad school started. This class is boring, and easy. We spent our evening finishing the first (and only) season of Firefly, and two more Band of Brothers episodes.
Tuesday: Grad school, started packing, went to see The DaVinci Code. I’m glad I didn’t reread the book, because I knew most of the things that were going to happen in the movie, despite not remembering many of the details of the book.

Wednesday: Grad school, and then to the airport. I did much better with flying this time, friends. Despite the fact that there was no in-flight movie, or a place to plug-in headphones, my step-father-in-law found out which seats had the DC power outlet, so I got to watch the first disc of the first season of House. Nothing distracts you from fatalistic grimness at 32,000 feet like a morbid jackass doctor. I loved it, and it really helped me during the flight. Because, as we all know, I do not do well with flying.

We made it safely to LAX, and got our luggage quickly. We were in Ventura by 12:45am zulu, making it 2:45 in Chi-town. Long day.

Thursday: Got up fairly early, because day 1 of the Cali Trip is wine-tasting day! I’m not a big wine-drinker, but I enjoyed going to the different wineries to taste the wines. I’ve decided there is a very simple system for determining whether or not I like wines: I say “Like it” if I didn’t want to vomit, and “Didn’t like it” if I did want to vomit. Thankfully, I enjoyed most of the wines we tried today. We went to four vinyards, and did three tastings. We also went to a brewery to do a beer sampler flight (they were realllllllly good). I learned that I don’t like hanging out with people who are obsessed with wine (like the people that we saw at the wineries) but that I do like wine more than I thought.

The weather here in California is gorgeous. I totally get why people want to live here.
I also took some pictures today. I’m trying really hard to keep a photo record of this trip, and I put them on my flickr page. (See the Cali Trip set) The more I play with my camera, the more I’m impressed with the pics it takes. For a point-and-shoot, it does a pretty nice job. As you can see, I’ve been working on the macro setting, and looking at lighting.

Tomorrow is Hollywood. We’re going to hit the streets and look for stars. Or at least Lindsay Lohan (skank).

So that’s what I’ve been doing in the last eight days. Now I’m sleepy.

Wedding

Tony| Category: General | 0 Comments

Wedding

Originally uploaded by bonemuse2004.

Yes they are all mine… Thank you open bar

This is how the other half lives

Tony| Category: General | 0 Comments

This is how the other half lives

Originally uploaded by bonemuse2004.

Sox park!

From the Mirror of my Mind, I See Reflections of You and Me…

Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Unfortunately Serious, Random, All about me | 0 Comments

Friends, I’ve had a lot of time to sit lately. Instead of eating, my usual favorite sitting activity, I’ve been thinking. Since my ankle is NOT cooperating, and still refuses to allow me to walk sans crutches, I am stuck in places that require thinking on my part.

So I’ve been thinking. (Unusual, isn’t it…)

TK’s things he’s done thought about recently:

School:

It’s the end of the year. I’ve spent a good portion of the last few weeks getting my students ready to leave me and second grade behind. This is going to sound incredibly lame, but it’s my ebjournal, so deal with it. I feel like when the kids leave my room, their time of innocence at school is rapidly coming to an end. Next year, they’re in third grade, and they begin the harsh transition into letter grades, reading to learn (which we’re doing in our class, but ever so gently) instead of learning to read, and standardized testing that gets all teachers more uptight than anyone should be. They get to experience all sorts of fun new learning, and somewhere down the road they will remember all of three things I taught them; the rainforest, the Washington D.C. monuments, and maybe “Don’t panic.” So the end of the year tends to be a little depressing for me. In August, I’ll be psyched for my new group of students, but for now, June is bittersweet.

On Friday, as I was thinking about all of this, I was suprised and delighted to receive a letter from one of my former students. She was in my class last year, but moved in the middle of the year. It was a sort of vindication, that yes, I am making a difference in some students’ lives, even if they don’t realize it at the time. (And really, how could they, with most of the focus of their thinking centered around cooties vaccinations, Ice Age 2, and birthday parties?) Tomorrow night is my first Poetry Night, and we are nowhere near ready, but one parent told me on Friday that the kids are excited, and that her daughter has been practicing her poems at home. I didn’t even tell them to do that! Awesome.

Family:

We’ve been having family issues lately. Not end of the world issues, just things that kick around in my head, and I feel like I need to think about it. However, this is not the forum for it. (Hi, family!) But I’ve been thinking about all of our different families, and how we fit into them.

Television:

There is a lot of good television and movies out there. TLEMK and I are at the point of the year that we get to watch a season of a show, because all the regular shows are done for the summer. For instance, back at my birthday time, Stuck gave me the season of Firefly. After watching Serenity, it has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience. However, I’m miffed because there was only one season of it. HBO finally put Deadwood season two OnDemand, so we caught up on that last weekend in anticipation of season three, which starts June 11th. Though it’s by far the filthiest show I’ve ever watched, it’s one of the most fascinating and well-written shows out there. Finally, we’ve been watching Band of Brothers, the HBO docudrama that was made a few years ago on the first paratroopers of WWII. I read the book about 4 or 5 years ago, and I didn’t remember that much from it. The series has been excellent, and makes me glad I’ve never had to go to war. (See, Zigzags? I can be cultured, too!)

However, all of these had relatively short lives. Firefly has ONE season, because it was on Fox. HBO has already announced that Deadwood is done after season three, because they need the director on Rome. Obviously, Band of Brothers was short (well, actually, about 10 hours for a documentary). The point is, the smart television I like gets cancelled. Thankfully, Veronica Mars will be back next year for a third season, only after serious efforts to keep it on the CW. The CW, you ask? The merged network of UPN, and the WB. The people that are bringing 7th Heaven,(for it’s billionth season!) even though they finished the series on the WB, and instead cancelled Everwood. I fear for the future of television.
Misc.

I’ve been thinking about baseball, grad school, and moving, pretty much in that order. My fantasy team sucks, but I’m holding on to the fact that they might be second half players. Grad school picks up three days a week (5 hours a day, plus commute) starting June 12th. And we’re moving, hopefully in mid-July. TLEMK has started packing, and I feel terrible that I can’t help her. IF I get my boot soon, that should make things get back to the normal balanced team that we are usually. For now, she’s the best for doing all the stuff I can’t.
Coming up this week:

Mon.-Poetry Night

Tues.– Half-day, pack up the classroom, finally get my castboot/camwalker?

Wed.- Last day of school

Thurs.– MRI, Sox game

Fri.– Flecktones!

Sat.– Wedding

Sun.– Old friends?

Mon.– Grad school starts. Yikes.

So that’s the tip of what I’ve been thinking about. Lots of wheels churning. Very irregular and unusual. Kinda scary!

Better go back to eating.

(Edit:  What are YOU thinking about?  Check out the new poll!)