PenguinSix

High tide + massive storm front = Tropical Storm waves outside on the seawall.  I wonder if I will have a canoe come morning.  Probably will float away somewhere down the Bay.

I had two firsts today.  The first time I paid over $4 for a tank of gas ($4.04) and the first time I had a $70 fillup.  And this is the same time I’m looking to buy a new truck.  How much is the Mini Cooper?

In case you are wondering, I had to buy a new mailbox today.  This is what happens when a RAV4 swerves to avoid a cat, takes out all the mailboxes for my block, along with 20 feet of a telephone pole.  Amazingly, we had Internet, phone and power throughout.  The driver was taken to the hospital.  The cat was put in the truck full of road kill.

My mailbox is the one with the black front.

Got hit by the AMT this year.  Apparently our combined income and the family size is just perfect for those folks who get caught up in the AMT. I shouldn’t really say bite.  I should say devastating hunk of income going to taxes.  I tried all the deductions I could but basically the AMT says ‘yea, that’s nice, now where is the money?’   Kind of like the mafia in the movie Goodfellas. 

Yup, that’s the scoreline today.  Take it to the bank.

I was on the sidelines. Wenger came up and told me to take the ball down low into the corner, then in an elaborate scheme I was to get the ball back and make about 8 passes so we went from the left corner, back to the midway line, and then into the right corner. From there we would cross and get a header and win the game.

We were already up 1-0 in the 78th minute when I came on. The throw-in came to me but it was way too strong and rolled back all the way to our goal. I followed it, turned and looked downfield. Most of the players were still on the left hand side waiting for the throwin, but in front of me, 70 yards away, I could see Tierry Henry making a break to the right which was virtually unoccupied. I kicked an amazingly straight pass 70 yards on the ground, passed all the players and Herny got it at the goal line. He stepped over the ball with his left foot and then kicked it behind his left leg with his right foot, stroking it into the goal.

Woohoo! My first EPL assist! I remember getting mobbed after the goal by the players and Wenger catching me in the hallways to congratulate me on my pass. I went to Jill Smith (Arsenal Supporters Club liason) but she was out. I told the person there “I just wanted to gloat and bask in some glory for a bit” and she laughed. “You deserve to”.

I then hear this roar, slow at first and growing louder. It sounded more like a wail. I looked around and noticed I was in bed and it was dark. My first though was ‘Henry doesn’t play for Arsenal anymore so it couldn’t have happened.’ My second thought was of my son calling me over the baby monitor.

I walked into his room with visions of nubile young Arsenal babes wishing to congratulate me on my goal scoring prowess, only to then be confronted with the reality of a dirty diaper waking my son up from his sleep.

Sigh…

UPDATE:  PA Avenue is now entirely closed between 15th and 17th.Hazmat teams have just arrived at the White House.  Penn. Avenue in front of the White House has cops every 50 feet or so.  Not sure if I should stick around to find out why….  

You think she was guilty? From the San Francisco Paper

Tom McVay, a tester for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, told a jury in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that on March 14, 2002, he was assigned to locate Thomas at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, east of San Diego, and collect a urine sample for a steroid test. The visit was memorable, McVay said, because of Thomas’ appearance when she answered his knock on her apartment door.“It appeared to be like shaving cream on the left side of her face around her ear,” he said.

I don’t normally like over the top parodies of folks, but this was a pretty funny video interview of Gov. Richardson and Obama.  

To have accepted Obama’s smooth apologetics is to have lowered one’s own pre-existing standards for what might constitute a post-racial or a post-racist future. It is to have put that quite sober and realistic hope, meanwhile, into untrustworthy and unscrupulous hands. And it is to have done this, furthermore, in the service of blind faith. Mark my words: This disappointment is only the first of many that are still to come.

The whole article is an interesting read.