[Shrek] A Public Service Announcement

I can't hold my tongue any longer. After years of keeping my mouth shut and pretending not to notice, I can no longer sit by silently and allow you to make a fool of yourself. Truly, I'm doing this for your own good.

Hey dude, you're bald.

I know you think you're fooling us with that comb over that parts your hair an inch above your ear, but you're not. We can tell. Honest. The fact your hair all points in the same direction is a big clue that you have very little of it.

Being bald is not a big deal. I'm bald. I have been for a very long time. In the battle between my forehead and hair line the winner was obvious, although lately it seems peace has broken out and the follicle full-retreat has stopped.

My father was bald. My brother is bald. We got over it. You can too, and you can do it without the need for massive amounts of therapy.

Yes, I wear hats. And yes, I do own a lot of them. But I don't wear them to hide the fact I don't have hair, I wear them to avoid burning the top of my head. When you're bald you have to watch out for stuff like that.

Something else I need to say--if you're an older person, male or female, your hair should not be jet black. It also should not be fire engine red, bleach blond, nor any other color that looks like it was done with Paint Shop Pro. If you don't like the grey that's invading your mane, might I suggest something a tad closer to what your natural hair color was. A touch of highlights of different shades of your "natural" color would look nice too.

Your friends and family will love you no matter what your hair looks like. And once you know that, who cares what anyone else really thinks.

[Fiona] COFFEE

I love coffee. Seriously there is nothing in this world that can give me that warm and fuzzy feeling like a great cup of coffee. Now that I am older I drink half caff so I don't get the ride I once enjoyed from caffeine but it is still my favorite early morning and right after work beverage. I grew up in a household where tea was king. I didn't start to really drink coffee until I began dating my hubby. In those first few dates we couldn't drive by a Dunkin' Donuts without stopping for a cuppa. I would order cocoa or soda but I found them to be disappointing and often more expensive than coffee. One day I tried a cup of that rich, enticing brew and thus began my love affair. I find now that I look forward to the end of the day when I can sit, relax and reflect about things with my friend Mr.Coffee.

[Fiona] The Question of Family

I apologize in advance as this post is a departure in tone from my usual posts. I haven't posted anything new in awhile. My life is complicated right now by the illness of my Mom. My mother is a walking textbook of ill health. Name a condition and it is likely that she either lives with it or has had it at some time or other. Earlier this week my mom passed out and was rushed to the hospital. My mother is currently in the CCU. Now about the question I have about family. Is it my duty to inform relatives she is sick? These relatives have in essence largely ignored my family for years. My mother has some serious mental health issues. This may be part of the reason why she(we)have been shunned. For the record it was not easy being raised by a dysfunctional parent. I know that life with my mother has not always been easy for my dad but he loves this woman with his whole being; as do I. I am the person I am because of her, inspite of her and with her help, guidance and love. She loved me the best way she knew how. I started this post on my mom's birthday, June9th.She passed away on June 11.

[Shrek] An update to my previous post

It seems I spoke too soon as CBS canceled another show I liked, Jericho.

There have been several fan sites set up to convince CBS to bring the show back, including an online petition that claims over 65,000 electronic signatures.

[Shrek] Some random stuff 2

One of my favorite shows has been canceled, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I've liked everything Aaron Sorkin has done, but like his first series Sports Night, Studio 60 was too smart for its audience. It would have been nice if NBC had given it a chance by keeping it on some sort of reasonable airing schedule. I pay attention to when it's being aired and I'm not sure when it comes back to finish its run. Changing a show's schedule like that is a killer. I figured NBC would have learned that lesson with another Sorkin gem, West Wing. Guess not.

Another of the new shows that aired in the fall of '06 I liked was Smith, which starred Ray Liotta as the head of a team of professional thieves. It was canceled after just three weeks in another case of being far too smart for the people watching it. Based on the network schedules released so far it seems all the other shows I watch ("all the other" being a misnomer, I watch like seven network shows) have survived to next season, excluding The Sopranos of course.

And what's with all these game shows in prime time? Not a single one of them is any good, nor is any all that entertaining. The same goes for these reality shows. Survivor used to be at least interesting, now everything that happens there is contrived by writers and editing. Donald Trump, who is the biggest gas bag on the planet and has the worst comb over this side of the Mississippi River, has had his show The Apprentice canceled. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. There's no word if he's blaming Rosie O'Donnell for getting axed by NBC yet.

Changing gears, someone needs to explain to me why the price of gas is rising so quickly. The cost of a barrel of crude oil is fairly stable and lower than it was last summer, and there's been no significant raise in demand. So why is the price skyrocketing? I'm sure it has something to do with most of the oil companies and their record profits. I'm all for the free market, but something needs to be done about these fat cats.

And while you're explaining about the cost of gas maybe you can explain to me how convenience stores and gas stations can sell milk cheaper than supermarkets. Fiona and I generally buy our groceries at the off-priced market Price Rite or at BJ's Wholesale Club, so I was shocked at the prices I saw when we wandered into Price Chopper today. Some of the "sale" prices were obscene. The story is the same at Shaw's, the market we used to go to on occasion before they closed the one that was most convenient for us to get to.

To prevent this from being all negative, Fiona and I will be heading to the Tornadoes' free preseason game Tuesday at the HIP. Fiona has been waiting for local baseball to start up since the last game ended. We'll be skipping our bowling night to go, so we prebowled this afternoon so we'd have scores for the week. I'm looking forward to Josie and Rich telling us about the complaining the other teams will do because Fiona and I were a little over our averages.

Perhaps they'll whine in their blogs about it.

[Shrek] Bowling and Backpedaling

Tuesday began the couple's league I bowl in during the summer. As I mentioned earlier, I'm on a new team with Rich, Josie, and Fiona. Let's just say the league has probably never seen a team like us.

Because Fiona was going to Salter School the last couple of summers she hasn't bowled in the league since 2004. It was funny watching her open her bowling bag as she wasn't certain what was going to crawl out of it. Turns out it was just as she left it--her shoes and red, white, and blue bowling balls neatly packed away.

To say Fiona was "a little rusty" would be the understatement of the relatively new millenia. She bowled less than her previously reliable 66 average, but as the night went on she had more and more fun as the rust scraped away. The highlight of the evening was when she got a ten and nearly the entire league cheered and rang the bells they bring to indicate a teammate scored a spare or strike. Her ear-to-ear grin really solidified that we are there for the fun of it.

I had my normal night--two good strings sandwiched around an absolutely pathetic effort. I finished with a 320, which is right around where I should be scoring. Rich was a tad under where he normally bowls, but as he's bowled very little (if at all) since last summer that's not a shock. Josie wrote her own story about the night, which you can catch in her blog on the T&G website.

We bowled some good folks and we all had a great time. And as luck would have it, when it was all said and done we tied 4-4 for the evening.

Now for a complete change in direction, I'd like to say some things about Curt Schilling. As if there's anyone on the planet that doesn't know, Curt Schilling is the definition of "attention whore". There isn't a topic he doesn't have an opinion about, and he's not afraid of speaking about it. Some might say he and I have that in common, but I digress...

Schilling makes a weekly appearance on Boston's WEEI (850 AM, in Worcester it is simulcasted on WVEI 1440AM). During his call in earlier this week to the "Dennis and Callahan" show, Schilling was asked if fans should hold their noses while Barry Bonds perseus Hank Aaron's Major League all-time home run record.

His answer:
Oh yeah. I would think so. I mean, he admitted that he used steroids. I mean, there's no gray area. He admitted to cheating on his wife, cheating on his taxes, and cheating on the game, so I think the reaction around the league, the game, being what it is, in the case of what people think. Hank Aaron not being there. The commissioner trying to figure out where to be. It's sad.

And I don't care that he's black, or green, or purple, or yellow, or whatever. It's unfortunate... there's good people and bad people. It's unfortunate that it's happening the way it's happening.

Schilling has backed away from those comments, and posted an apology on his blog (which I will not link to, Google it if you want to see it).

Well Curt, you should have stood behind those comments. Yes, you were wrong when you said Bonds "admitted to cheating on his wife, cheating on his taxes, and cheating on the game", because Bonds has never admitted to doing those things. He has admitted to taking steroids, although he says it was "unknowingly". Yeah, I guess you could "unknowingly" take a substance for a few years and not wonder why you went from looking like Stan Laurel to The Incredible Hulk.

The fact is Bonds has done all of those things, he simply didn't admit to doing so. I would have liked to have seen what would have happened if just once someone would have the guts to speak out against the elephant in the room, and I thought for once Shilling would use his reputation and speak out.

Alas, I was wrong.

For humor's sake people should check out all the attacks now aimed at Schilling. Many of them are coming from the San Fransisco area. I can't say I'm surprised at that as they are the only people that believe en masse that Bonds is a victim in all of this.

[Shrek] Some Random Stuff

In our April 22nd post I said we'd talk about our recent voyage to Manchester, NH, so I shall start there.

A bunch of us from the Worcester Sharks Booster Club went up to Manchester to watch game two of the Sharks/Monarchs playoff series. Now I had been to Manchester a few times, and in fact had stayed at a hotel that looks down upon the Verizon Wireless Center. I had never been in the building, so it was something new for me on a lot of levels.

Because the trip was badly mismanaged the booster club went up in two vehicles--a rented mini-van, and my buddy Rich's Durango, which was the vehicle Fiona and I were in. We were joined by some other "Sharks buddies" Ernie and Dave. Dave is also a "Tornado buddy", so I'm sure you'll be hearing more about him in the future. The drive up was a lot of fun, a mishmash of conversations about our jobs, politics, and whatever else struck our fancy. It is here that I learned of the term "LBGs". It is extremely "non-PC", and I will not explain what it means. But I do expect to use that term a lot in the future.

So we arrive in Manchester and the first thing you notice is the Verizon Center has no lobby. Everyone is lined up outside in front of the doors waiting for them to open. Luckily it was a beautiful evening so it wasn't a problem. I can envision huge issues if it were raining or snowing, something that happens frequently in the winter.

The mini-van that was driven by Chris had arrived before us, and they were at will call getting our tickets. I was not shocked to find out there was a problem, which luckily were easily solved. I will refrain from posting about how funny it was watching Chris, who has some form of chronic laryngitis, try and communicate with the woman inside the ticket booth.

So into the building we go, and it is an oddly designed place. As you walk around the concourse you go from the standard arena look to what looks like office space, and back again. We made several stops at the Monarch's Booster club table, where they were all generally nice folks. However, the vast majority of the rest of the fans are complete numbskulls.

As the game went on every hit by a Monarchs player resulted in huge cheers; every hit by a Sharks player caused a whine so high looking for a penalty you'd have thought the building was full of preschoolers. It got to the point where we'd laugh at the crowd's reaction. Unfortunately, they got the last laugh as Manchester won the game in double OT, 4-3.

One odd aside, while we were in Manchester several of us commented how good the food was, and how there was a much wider selection over the DCU Center. Later in the series there were several Monarchs fans that came to Worcester and told us how much better the food was in the DCU Center over the Verizon Center.

I guess the saying "the grass is always greener..." fits there.

In other news...

My fall bowling leagues are just ending. In my Thursday league I had the second high average on the team and bowled fairly well throughout the season. In my Monday night league I was, well, terrible. In neither league will my teams finish in the top half, which is a shock because in the Monday league we led the pack at the halfway mark.

Tuesday will see the summer couple's league start, and I'm changing teams from who I bowled with the last couple years. I'll be bowling with Fiona, Rich, and Josie (you can read one of Josie's blogs that is linked in the right side menu). I'm going into that league to have fun and just stay loose over the summer...or so I say now.

With the Sharks being eliminated Fiona and I will focus on the Worcester Tornadoes (Can-Am league baseball) when that season starts. For now we're passing time watching the New England Surge (Continental Indoor Football League).

I'm sure there's some other stuff I'm not remembering right now, so until next time...

[Fiona] Football

I hadn't realized just how long it has been since I posted anything meaningful or not so meaningful. I thought I'd sit and bitch about a few observations of late. Let me say that indoor football is alive and well in Worcester,MA. I LOVE football. Well that is to say ever since hubby explained it all to me about 12 years ago. What I can do without...the cheerleaders. Eye candy is a good thing I suppose but couldn't we get it in smaller doses or maybe could they have some sort of talent other than big breasts? Being of an intelligent intellect even the "prettiest" get boring to look at if all they have to offer is their beauty. Do something for Pete's sake. The "Surge" cheerleaders don't actually do anything. If Nancy Sinatra could watch them strut out onto the field in their white vinyl boots she just might be impressed, but these girls lack a serious routine. Where are the dance moves? How about doing something other than flick the tiny gold pompoms back and forth. I keep waiting for the girls to do something: explode a breast implant or dance or do an acrobatic routine. Give me something; I can smile and shake my thing.I want to be impressed with you lot but...

[Shrek & Fiona] We're still alive, honest!

Between hockey playoffs and a ton of little things going on (nothing too major, just time consuming) we've let our blog slip a little.

Rest assured that there will be frequent updates soon, including stuff about our recent voyage to Manchester, New Hampshire and other assorted tales.

(Fiona) It's a Bitch

I came to a shocking and thought provoking conclusion the other day...I am now in that dreaded category, middle age. Shrek and I were on our way to our local BJ's when a 'sizzling car' went flying by us, music blaring. My first thought was not, "wow, nice ride" but" what an asshole". I found this thinking strange for me but Shrek mirrored my thoughts in spoken words. We are indeed getting older and with it our way of living and thinking are changing. Damn! I wanted to be young forever and now I find that I am 'youth challenged'. I remember the good ole days when I could stay up all night. Now, I can't make it to 10:30 most weekends.

The other thing that I find disturbing ; the clothing. The clothes where I enjoy shopping seem to be for the younger crowd. I can't help but wonder when my taste in clothes changed from new and stylish to comfy and warm? What's next I wonder hot cocoa before bed? Reading glasses?It's a bitch...growing old.