Matsui or Matt Suhey?

I know I’m not the sharpest hunk of cheese, but every time I hear news of Japanese baseball stars Hideki or Kazuo Matsui, I wonder when Matt Suhey (famous American football player) started playing baseball.
Baseball used to be our national sport, but in the last decade people have finally realized how boring a sport it really is. I did watch the 9th inning of the White Sox game last night. And I was emotionally connected to the game with three great outs recorded at the glove of 3rd Baseman Juan Uribe. They were some circus catches and throws.
Each year I take our British soccer visitors to a baseball game. I feel that it should be a part of their American experience. I am cheap, so I take them to Schaumburg. Each year I am reminded how dull the game itself really is. People who still go to baseball games, go for reasons other than the thrill of the contest, most of the time. Every time I talk to someone about the Kane County Cougars, they say something about the fun that can be had, and never about the baseball game itself. Similarly, I’m told that the atmosphere of Wrigley Field is the reason so many people pay money to go there, not to watch baseball. Again, in my 33 years, I have NEVER step foot inside Wrigley field. I drove by it once in 1999, while driving around that part of town, and closing down a video store. My thought was, “Hmm, there’s Wrigley field. Cool. Where does everybody park? Oh well.” And I drove away.
Football season officially begins for me tomorrow night, with the first Chicago Bears preseason game. I know it’s just preseason, it doesn’t count, etc. but I don’t care. I just really want to watch a football game, regardless of the outcome or the reasons behind its existence. I want to hear what coach Ditka has to say about the prospects of this year’s team. I want to react to the play in my very emotional manner that usually involves shouting at the television.
When I watch a game and my favored team (Bears or Rush) windup losing, I am usually depressed for a good half of a day. This emotional attachment to a game and to a bunch of guys who don’t care about me personally is ridiculous. But it inevitably happens to me. The same happens when I lose money in the stock market coincidentally. I’m up $300 on the day at this moment. Maybe the Bears will win too.
Someone find me a picture of Matt Suhey and Matsui (either one) shaking hands. Then find me a picture of Yoda talking to Grover. I’m still sure they are the same creature.

Why don't they name Tornados?

We were at Algonquin Commons for dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise; we then went to Border’s books and the Archiver’s scrapbook supply store. When the boys were done touching EVERYTHING in that store, I took them out to the van. As we got in to the van, I saw a storm approaching from the west. I hoped Heather would be coming out of the store soon, as it was bearing down on us. As it started to rain, I hoped she would call me to bring the van to the door. Then she came around the side of the van, soaking wet.
As we started to drive down Randall Rd., the storm really grew exponentially. By the time we got to Miller Rd., we decided it was the best idea to get off of the road to take cover for 10 minutes or so. WBBM agreed that the storm was right over us and that taking cover was the best solution.
We decided that dessert was a good choice, so Culver’s was the answer. As we drove past, Heather decided that Culver’s had too much glass, and Menard’s was the better choice with the weather.
As we pulled into the parking lot, the siren behind the store sounded. This threw Joshua into a terror. We ran out of the van and into the store. As we got into the front door, Josh finally lost his mind. He started wailing, “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.” As we walked down the first aisle, the management of the store made the announcement that everyone should take cover in the center of the building, under the second tier area. This just happens to house the store’s lawn furniture display. The twenty or so shoppers and staff sat together in comfort for the 10-15 minutes it took for the worst to pass.
Joshua found a coffin sized cedar chest to spend his time in. Yes, the lid was closed.
Bea and Diane both called in the time we were taking shelter, and we called Pat.
When the all clear was sounded amongst the staff, we exited and decided to get our Culver’s in the drive thru.
As we drove home, Diane called back to report that the storm had gotten to her in the city. She was in a Joshua-esque panic. She fumbled for a flashlight, and made her way in to the basement of her building.
Though Tom Skilling said, “this was certainly the strongest storm of the summer,” the storm passed with very little damage and no injuries reported. The tens of thousands of fans at the Cubs game were actually evacuated from Wrigley field, after 6 innings of play.

More Than Meets the Eye

I stole this story from Steve Stearns, but I had to post it for myself. This is possibly the creepiest thing I have ever seen.
http://www.bostondynamics.com/content/sec.php?section=BigDog

Blogging

You know that you have not done something enough when you go there and find that the procedure for entering has changed. Today I decided to start paragraph blogging again. I have phrase blogged every day for a month now. The phrase blog is now a very complete list of events taking place in my life with a substantial element of reflection. I decided that I needed even more reflection as well as a fuller explanation of the events.
I came back here to http://dancinsteve.blogspot.com to find that I had not posted in 22 months. OOPS.
I decided to log-in and look around. It turns out that in the last two years (sometime), Blogger has been acquired by Google (swallowed up, more specifically).
It took me a good 20 minutes to get the right credentials to even login to the new Google based system.
But I got in and I'm back to blogging. Now I just need to look around to see what the Google element of the system will provide. Have they made Blogger MORE useful? Can it be used to record my biography more easily? Will it make me MORE likely to actually post?
Firefox auto corrects spelling errors. Finally I can type a blog and have the spell check actually work like a word processor! This might be great!