* Newly-finished: a soundtrack for
the Sudden Yurt Commune. I'll be working on the insert over the next couple of days. Any of you Yurters want a copy, please email me - nightflymail AT gmail DOT com - with a mailing address.
* Hey, one of the SYC-OST songs is playing on the iPod right now. Sweet.
* It is currently 92°, with 85% humidity, about to storm. This is an improvement over last week, when it was 103°, with 174% humidity, and always five minutes away from a huge rainstorm that never came.
* I've played tournaments outdoors, in the bright strong sun; on painted concrete surfaces that baked like parking lots, where you could see heat waves at the far end of the rink; I've played as many as four hour-long games in a night; I've reffed for nine straight hours each day of a weekend tournament... but I have never been as beat as at the end of my one game last week, indoors no less, during the absolute depths of the hideous oppressive weather. The heat from under my gear felt like an open oven door. I could feel my pulse in my neck and ears. It was brutal. If there had been an overtime I don't think I could have finished it. I felt like a crayon melting in a closed car.
* I am holding an hour-long press-conference/ego-stroke/circus/charity fundraiser on ESPN tonight at 9 pm Eastern, to announce my decision about what to do with this blog.
* Speaking of which, the Miami Heat announced a free-agent deal with LeBron's former Cleveland teammate, Zydrunas Ilgauskas. I thought he left Cleveland because they surrounded him with bad teammates?
* Today someone at work brought in donuts for everyone. This happens about once a month or so, for no particular reason, on no set schedule, just because. My coworkers are pretty darned cool.
* I have too good a life to be so pissy lately.
* A few months ago I was walking the Official Dog, and an orange tabby decided to trot over, tail high, to make friends.
Since then Catfriend pops around every week or so and he hangs out with the pupperkins. She wags, he purrs. Pupperkins must think he's the strangest-smelling dog ever, but they're buddies - unlike the day last week when a lady on a horse walked through the neighborhood. (We have a sizable park near the house and folks will sometimes ride there.) The Official Dog was freaked about that a little. I kept her close to me, across the street, so she wouldn't spook the horse.
* If Ladybug wasn't allergic, I'd consider getting the pupperkins a catfriend of her very own at home. I have always been a cat lover. She'll have to make do with her eleven dozen toys, various snacks and treats, mild Internet fame, and the single attention of her two owners.
* There's a four-lane divided highway about a mile from our house; people enjoy making illegal lefts onto and occasionally off of said highway, despite no fewer than five signs forbidding the practice. You'd think that you couldn't miss such instructions, nor all the helpful people honking incessantly at you, or the friendly pointing to the signs with one finger. You'd be in error. It's amazing that there aren't more wrecks at that intersection.
* Last night was baseball's All-Star Game, out in Anaheim. Both leagues trotted out an assortment of pitchers who threw 95+ mph: Justin Verlander, Josh Johnson, Matt Thornton, Jose Valverde, Brian Wilson, Jonathon Broxton. Not surprisingly, there was a dearth of scoring. The AL's only run came off a walk, error, and sac fly. Dodger pitcher Hong-Chih Kuo (who was dealing in the high-90's himself) helped this immensely by fielding a dibbler in front of the mound, throwing off his back foot, and airmailing it 20 feet above his first baseman's head. Every New York Giants fan watching immediately said, "Hey - Eli Manning's in the game!"
* The NL won on a late bases-loaded double by Braves catcher Paul McCann. They wasted a great early opportunity when Verlander struck out Ryan Braun on a pitch down the middle of the opposing batter's box. This thing would have been wide of a soccer net. Every New York Mets fan watching immediately said, "Hey, I thought Jeff Francoeur didn't make the All-Star Game this year!"
* Brian Wilson and Corey Hart were NL teammates. Now THAT would be a weird musical collaboration.
* Paperwork. Always with the paperwork. I close my eyes and see these forms floating around, demanding to be properly catalogued and compiled. My subconscious has turned into a flash drive.
* Mmmmmmmm...... coffee.......
*In three weeks I will have been married three years. Wild.
* I love fonts. Thus, I love
Blambot.
* The Mother of Unfinishable Stories goes slowly in any font. I've been writing others. As they begin to bog down, I think that switching back to the MOUS may help get everything moving again. I hope so, because I am enjoying the adventures of the characters in the series and would like not to have that stall permanently.
* Love you all.
