7-inning games...
1) Games take too long. Well, multiply by 7/9ths to get 2:45 instead of 3:30.
2) Stats are juiced. Well, 73 homers times 7/9 is 57. Even Barry can't reach Maris now.
3) Pitch counts. Suddenly 105 pitches gets you a complete game.
4) Bad middle relief. Now you just need two closers and a starting staff.
5) No doubleheaders....well, I'm not sure this helps, because of the whole "separate gate" issue.
So I'm making a clone brew.....can't wait to see how 9% alcohol comes out....this stuff's gonna be hooch if ever there was.
The best part, of course, is turning around to see a 5-gallon stockpot boil over with all the malt added. Instant caramelization on the stovetop and plenty of sticky goo to clean up. No, that stuff doesn't end up in the beer.
Good to see the yeast already going to town this morning. That should be some happy yeast. Stunningly, the package of yeast claims 100,000,000,000 cells of yeast. So maybe NYC traffic over the weekend wasn't so bad.
Oh, and by the way, the sound system for Mötley Crüe in Camden NJ Saturday night sucked! Is Vince Neil actually still *in* the band? I couldn't hear him, if he is....
If anyone reads this, let me know whether your computer actually put the umlauts over the o and u....
So far, 11 started, and 1 lost week one, 2 lost week two....will this trend continue? I've got the Bills over the Jets. Gulp! None of these games are appetizing.
I think if I started a sports league, I wouldn't offer an MVP trophy, only a "player of the year" award, so that great players on sucky teams don't get screwed over Derek freaking Jeter.
Okay, tonight I head over to Maltose Express in Monroe to get some ingredients to make a batch of beer (about eight-nine six packs' worth) to use at our Halloween party. I'm a big IPA fan, but for homebrews, I like adding a lot of malt to give the beer some good body to it. I'll probably end up buying some clone brew kit, but maybe I'll pick one I've never actually had before. Aside from the occasional flat bottle that was mis-capped, I don't seem to get any complaints on taste.
Michelle Tafoya is a very good announcer, but damn, if she doesn't look like a female Al Michaels.
Byron Leftwich's post-game on-field snippet gave me a weird "Arnold Jackson" vibe.
Good to see Rudy Seanez sucking for someone else....eek what a nightmare for the Padres last night.
The Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" was on last night.....holy crap was that hysterical. I can't wait for the new ones they've signed up to make. Why did Fox screw around with that show's time slot? It was more creatively clever even than the Simpsons!
What if ESPN, instead of referring to them as "college basketball" and "college football", just started calling them "minor league" games instead? That's what they are.....with or without any semblance of professionalism. The only difference is that there aren't any 32-year-old "lifers" playing for Purdue, for example, for 10 years (except Brian Cardinal).
I think I know why, if I ran a company, I'd want to offer a 401(k) plan instead of a traditional pension.
If a guy makes $50,000 a year, and I have a 401(k) plan, all I have to budget for is that $50,000. Because the guy's responsible for putting away the money himself.....and maybe it reduces his take-home pay to $45,000.
If I offer a defined benefit plan, I'm on the hook for his $50,000 salary AND his normal cost for the DB plan. Depending on age and the formula, that could be an additional $500 or $5,000. So the same employee could cost $55,000.
The effect of a 401(k) plan is simply a net drain on one's pay, for the same benefit at age 65. If the DB plan were to feature smaller salaries, then the effects could be equalized. Or, to feature the same cost as the DB plan, the company could offer a money purchase plan that puts them on the hook for a mandatory fixed percentage of pay, say....
That's why 401(k) plans without company contributions kinda are a scheme by the company.
Has this term been defined yet?
Erika pointed out to me that "reverse psychology" wouldn't work to get her to pay attention to me.....so I suggested as an alternative that perhaps "forward psychology" might....
So I watched the first half of the football game last night.....Diddy AND Diet Pepsi suck, geez even Rascal Flatts wasn't so bad....no, I'm not a redneck.
Watching Al Michaels and John Madden made me reminisce like it was ABC all over again. WHY the moderator / 3 ex-players dynamic? Please! That's so useless....anyone think the Bus is going to really be good? I enjoyed Sterling with ESPN....Collinsworth must just be happy to be working again, but even he'd be better in the booth.
I just learned today that you're only allowed to reach over a tennis net to hit a ball back IF the ball has crossed the net already (like, if strong wind or weird spin makes it return back over to the same side of the net).
I had this weird scab on my leg from a softball injury, it's coming off differently than most scabs I've ever had. Some day I'll use Lindsey's microscope to check it out.
My cousin's daughter turns 1, and we're giving her a stuffed Po from Teletubbies. I suggested we find a dealer and include something to make the show a little more watchable for her....or her parents!
The Legend of Zelda...Majora's Mask...starts tonight! yeah, 6 years after it came out, what of that?
So let's see.....I got to watch most of the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech game Saturday night....good to see football, and of course, the rare close college football game is always exciting. And of course, the men (NFL) start Thursday, so that's awesome. Erika's going to match wits with me in the football pool. Should be interesting. Dare I be brave and simply take the "anti-Erika" so that if she gets 5 right, I get 11 right automatically? Or am I really just asking for it like that
What else....we adjusted the height of the deck to level it out. Guess some years of settling made it uneven on one side. Always fun to shop at Home Depot.....that's a lie. I had to cut off an old lady trying to jump the line to talk to the guy running the saw, only to find out I had to exit the building, go find the piles of 4 x 4's, and then walk one back in the store to the back where the saw was. The associate was, needless to say, long gone.
The girls were over Saturday night (yay!) and they helped paint the tombstones for our Halloween party / wedding reception. Lindsey even went in the pool, which has so many leaves and not so many days left to be open. (Sept. 14 is the scheduled closing for the year.....not sure I got the about $1300 we spent's worth out of it, but it was cool to have for the girls' sake!)
So Steve, Rob, and I played 4 sets of tennis last night. Okay, 3 plus an exhibition set, to let Rob recoup face after losing it in the prior set. I won as the single, and then both doubles pairings against the other. So what if we let Rob win 6-0 in the 4th set....I'd already made my statement.
Of course, the worst part was going home and forgetting that the Agassi match was on....and then reading about it the next day.
I hope Erika's surgery is going well as I type!!
