The Flying Dutchman

I can't sleep, and I haven't posted in a few days, so here's a picture of Dutch Savage for you. His official site is a great read too, if you're so inclined.

Here, Dutch clenches his fist in the dreaded Coal Miners Glove, the spoils of being the first to capture the glove from a pole, and turning to use it on his opponent. This was called, simply enough, a Coal Miners Glove Match, invented by Dutch himself.

Oscar The Grouch Drives A Van

Have you taken a look at Keith Lowell Jensen's new website, trulyawfulstuff.com?

As usual, from this great mind of I Can't Believe It's Not Comedy, he slays me over and over.

While the awful stuff referenced is more of the 'awfully tacky' variety, I came across something I find disturbingly awful today.  

The company I work for has an automotive glass division. My co-worker had the pleasure of working on this van today.

The first picture here doesn't show quite the magnitude of this fellow's cigarette ash collection in the step next to the driver's seat, but if you look close, you can make out a soft drink lid being engulfed within.



The next picture shows (and again, I must stress that these pictures just don't do the scene justice) our clean living friend's collection of dispensed coffee in poker cups (the paper cups are adorned with a 'hand' of poker) an endless array of empty McDonald's bags, and various other forms of refuse sharing the cabin of the van.



Here, another view from the front to the back, with my jovial co-worker Sal (the lucky guy working on the van) waving enthusiastically (with latex gloves on, naturally).



And lastly, a view from Sal's vantage point from the last photo. the 'Rags In A Box' seem to keep the trash from impeding the use of the rear of the van which, although not evidenced by this photo, was covered in leaves and other earth derived debris.

If you look closely to the left, and past the glare of the window, you'll see a bulging green garbage bag.

My theory is that he knew someone would be working on his van, so he decided to tidy up a bit.



Anyone who knows me, even remotely, will have no trouble believing that when the van was first brought to my attention, I immediately began gagging and dry heaving, much to all of my co-workers' delight.

I wonder what the bucket's for.

Click the photos for a larger view.

Can You Live This Fantasy Life?

My fantasy baseball team is a lot of fun, although I'm getting killed in the pitching stats.

I was too late adding Gil Meche on Monday after Loaiza was finally put on the 15 day DL, and of course Meche turned in a monstrous day, pitching seven innings and giving up only one earned run.

Ted was really the one that turned me on to the guy on draft day, and I'd been chomping at the bit to pick him up after Loaiza didn't make his start against the River Cats last Thursday.

A.J. Burnett's 27.0 ERA, along with Justin Duchscherer and Derek Lowe each sporting a 13.5 average, made Joe Borowski's 9.0 average not seem so bad. Thankfully, my number one pitching pick. Daisuke Matsuzaka, pitched a beautiful seven innings, Armando Benitez picked up his first save, and the afforementioned Duchscherer picked up a win tonight. My pitching staff might actually be coming around.

One of the last picks I made was for my starting second baseman. A big time sleeper, I saw potential, but I have to admit, I picked him because we went to the same high school (though twelve or so years apart). Dustin Pedroia of the Red Sox is pulling through for me in a big way, leading all of my batters with .500 average.

Two more days of week one, and if my bats stay hot, and the earned runs come down, I could actually have a shot of sitting atop the league.

Wreslemania 23 (and #3, too)

Wrestlemania is two hours away. It's the 23rd installment, and I remember Wrestlemania III twenty years ago like it was, well, twenty years ago. Ha! All kidding aside, it seems like it was only just a few years ago.

Wrestlemania III is famous for a few things in wrestling circles, the most famous being the Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant match in which Hogan body slammed Andre, the first time in his career that the move had ever been initiated on the Giant.



The 450 pound King Kong Bundy attacked midget wrestler (or little person wrestler, if you will) Little Beaver.



Ricky Steamboat defeated Randy 'Macho Man' Savage in possibly the greatest match in Wrestlemania history. It's certainly my favorite, and it's one of the rare occurrences in wrestling fan geek-dom that most everyone agrees on it's (the match's) brilliance.

Part 1



Part 2



Alice Cooper made an appearance with Jake 'the Snake' Roberts.

I'll leave you with a bit of 'Mania trivia: Howard Finkel is the only person to ever appear on every single Wrestlemania Pay Per View, something not even Vince McMahon has done.

Hitsville

So, Loaiza didn't end up pitching tonight, and the game was far from a pitcher's duel (11-10 in favor of the A's was the final). It was fun being at the ballpark though, and sometimes a hit-fest is fun to watch, and this being a game of no consequence, fun was what it was all about.

Mike Piazza hit a home run, and Nick Swisher hit two, but the most amazing thing was that Swish laid off the first two pitches (both strikes) that he saw tonight. He isn't exactly the paragon of plate discipline.

I took Dan Johnson as my last draft pick, as sort of a sleeper pick, hoping that perhaps he's corrected the trouble he was having seeing the ball during night games, but it's all for naught as he was placed on the Disabled List tonight. Ugh.

Play Ball!

The A’s take on the River Cats at Raley Field tonight.



Esteban Loaiza takes the mound for the A’s, and I couldn’t be happier. He’s one of my starting pitchers in my fantasy league, and since this is the first time I’ve ever done fantasy baseball, am hoping he’ll be the Ace of my staff.

I didn’t draft very well, and in fact, the three top pitchers I really wanted (Dan Haren, Chris Carpenter, and Bronson Arroyo) went sooner than I had predicted, not to mention the fact that Chien-Ming Wang was the second pitcher I drafted, and he went on the DL a couple of days ago.

Of all pitchers in the MLB though, Dan Haren is by far my favorite (with a healthy Rich Harden and the Reds’ Bronson Arroyo not far behind), so it’s a shame he’s not on my roster. His K/BB ratio is outstanding, and I’m really hoping the A’s hitters will give him a fighting chance at some wins this season.

I’ll be singing Take Me Out To The Ball Game at full volume, which I do at every game, but perhaps with just a bit more gusto tonight.

More 'Playboy' from the 80s

"Sweet Little Mud Pies". Outstanding

In Threes

Oh, yeah. Three new blogs linked.

Mommy Mommy. One of the first people I met when I moved to California, way back in '84.

Floating Foam. My friend Dave is smart, funny, witty, sweet, etc.

Rockass. KLJ. Comedian. Hilarious.

Polly T. Kitty

My cat, Polly, is just about my favorite thing in the whole world.



She was a few weeks old when she climbed into the engine compartment of my car (luckily, I saw her crawling into it), I popped the hood, threw her in a box, and took her to the vet.

I was living alone for the first time in my life and, with being a feral cat, she wasn't too interested in hanging out with me. Little by little she started coming around, and we've been best buds for the last 11 years.

I've had more than one girlfriend (there have been several in that time span) complain that I love my cat more than I love them, and I have to admit that I've been hard pressed to argue.

The last year has been a hard one. I took her to the vet and found she needed to have several teeth removed. Before she went in, I moved into a small, one bedroom apartment.

I took her in for the dental work, and I spent the next couple of weeks chasing her through the apartment when it was time for her medicine.

We moved into a two story, three bedroom house in November, and she seemed to be the happiest she's ever been.

A few weeks ago I came home and one of her eyes was giving her trouble. I took her to the vet, found it was irritated, and a simple eye cream was prescribed. Unfortunately, it was discovered that she needed to have more teeth removed.

She hates wet food, but with so few teeth remaining, was going to have to give it another shot. I went out and bought a wide variety of wet cat food. She didn't eat much the next few weeks, but I was holding out, figuring that she'd get hungry enough sooner or later and have to eat.

She never did though, and I guess I can look back and thank my lucky stars that she's so finicky. I'm pretty sure that just about every pack and can of wet food I put in front of her for two weeks was of the tainted-rat-poison variety.

She had another barrage of tests, and so far (fingers crossed) everything seems to be relatively fine.

So, she's back to kibble, and just gumming away at it.

Ah, stupid cat. I don't know what I'd do without her.

Hello again (with links to blogs).

After my last blog, which was epic, to say the least, I've had a hard time trying to even so much as post a picture. I don't want my blog to go unattended however, so whether or not I can live up to that last blog, here goes nothing...

Did you know that the women of new wave/punk rock love me?

Want proof?

Here's a picture of me and the legendary Alice Bag.



Josie Cotton has a myspace page.

Nikki Corvette has a  myspace page too.

I added them as 'friends' and guess what? They wrote to me! Can you believe that? Two singers I love, whose records I've long worn out, wrote to me to say hello.

Not only that, they're still making great new music.

Jaz Brown blogs here. He has his own website too.

Skid blogs from myspace.

Here's my buddy GB spouting off.

Watt. Truly, one of my heroes, and I don't have many. Watt's myspace.

Dianna is pretty damn funny.