joy in mudville

hold the football! baseball news from the hot stove too hot to let go...

after last year's historic collapse, the faithful were screaming for something to be done this offseason. and while endy's extension was nice, and dumping paulie bag o'donuts cleared some space for the HGH cap, this is the news we've been waiting for.

hopefully, sir johan will inspire pedro to get off his rocker and actually train for this year. then we may finally have a rotation that will get us through until october.

now, if only someone could teach delgado (aka cerrano) to hit a curveball, we may have a shot.

one week to go!

preparations are well underway for sunday's big event- finkbowl XII in just 6 days!

did some menu planning last night, will be making the circuit of the local groceries sometime this week. keeping with the tradition of the last few years of making a regional dish representing each of the teams, current plans are for some NE chowder and reuben sandwiches. of course, the gumbo will make its annual appearance as well, along with a few other things.

the celebrity death pool that we tried out last year was good but not great, but i still wanted to have some kind of contest that would last the year between finkbowls. i put together a year-long sports championship pool with wagers on different sporting events throughout the year. we'll see how that goes over. usual finkbowl wagering rules specificially prohibit off-site involvement in any competition. however, to increase interest in this year's special event, i'm opening it to anyone interested. the only caveat is that while you need not be present to participate, you must be present to collect. if you win but don't show at finkbowl XIII, your earnings roll over to next year. interested? let me know.

life goes on

for the second time in a month, i'm having to get started here after posting about deaths and funerals. and even though this time it involved family, seems a little easier to move on. gram's passing has been something we've all taken well, and are moving on from with comfort and peace.

makes it easier to address the matters at hand- finkbowl XII, only 10 days away!

movin' on up

just got word that gram has passed on. sounds like it was peaceful, not just for her but for my mom as well, who was at gram's side when she died.

this was all very sudden in a way, because although her alzheimer's was worsening over the past few years, her general health was fairly good. the cruelty of a disease like alzheimer's is that it often extends a person's decline because it doesn't affect anything more than the mind. in this circumstance, the sudden onset of an overwhelming, terminal disease like leukemia can be seen as nothing more than a blessing.

working in long-term care for the past 4 years as i have, i harbor very strong views about end-of-life care and an individual's right to die. (maybe fodder for another post someday, but just to clarify now- euthanasia is murder and is not part of my right-to-die philosophy). gram was allowed to die in comfort, with dignity, and with her daughter and a priest at her bedside.

a beautiful end to a beautiful life.

comfort care

sorry about the paucity of updates lately. a mini-vacation to start the year, followed by a ridiculously busy week last week in the office, and now a weekend of illness (others, not mine) make for not much time to check in here.

erin's battling some kind of flu bug, brendan's just getting over a weekend of MOOFE (multiple-orifice odorous fluid expulsion), and my gram was diagnosed with acute leukemia yesterday.

87 years old and in the throes of alzheimer's disease, she's not been herself for years. but she's maintained fair overall health until the past day or two, when she drifted out of sorts a bit. the nurses at her assisted living facility sent her over to the hospital yesterday at 10, and by 4 we found out it was likely leukemia.

already stricken with a terminal illness (her alzheimer's), the decision on what to do now was fairly simple: comfort care. she will likely enter under hospice care tomorrow, and soon move on to a better place.

no better comfort care than up there.

2007, we hardly knew ye...

working christmas week and relaxing the week after kept me off the computer for a bit, so the year-in-review post i was planning is coming out now. hey, if the NCAA can have its title game on jan 7, then you can get my best-of column on the 8th.

here, in no particular order, are my best-of's for 2007. not that every one of them were new in 2007, but they were new to me, which as you are now well aware is all that matters in this space...

• best album- "the virgins '07", the virgins: as recently as early december i'd have put the art in manila disc in this space, but i found this EP on itunes after catching one track on XM radio, and fell in love instantly. hoping that maybe they'll play a live show locally in '08.
• best book- "better", atul gawande: the author is a surgeon and frequent contributor to the new yorker. his book is a collection of essays on how the medical profession strives to better itself and humanity in the process. great even for non-medicos.
• best blog- the comics curmudgeon: and you thought i'd say this one, right? the curmudgeon is way better than this sorry old rag. it's hilarious, well written, and updated daily for your reading pleasure. if you're a fan of newspaper comics, you'll love this site.
• best new toy- the recent acquisition of the wii makes this a little tough, but i've got to go with the acoustic guitar i picked up in august. just as interactive, and works outside too.
• most prescient use of background music: fox's BCS selection show. i stand corrected.
• best movie- i went to one movie in 2007. i watched maybe 2 more on TV. so i have no authority to even have this as a category. but since everyone needs a best movie, i pick "superbad", since if i had seen it, it would probably be my favorite.
• best joke: a grasshopper walks into a bar. bartender says, "hey, you know we got a drink named after you?" grasshopper says, "oh yeah? you got a drink named fred?" not really fair, because that's my favorite joke every year.

happy new year!

4 days into january, and brendan may have the line of the year already - actually, the quote was from wednesday, only about 40 hours into the new year: 8 days after christmas, surrounded by games, books and two video game systems, one floor above a ping pong/pool/foosball table and bins full of power ranger toys, one floor below an entire room full of legos, wearing a long, pouty look on his face: "i have nothing to do".

god bless america.


here, from some happier times this christmas break:

a day trip to longwood gardens...


and the christmas picture you all almost had...