Random (translated = lazy) Thoughts

I'm going random tonight (primarily so I don't have to actually formulate a coherent thought about anything for more than a paragraph). 

• First up - I'm beat!  I was asked to sub by "Brew Crew" tonight for their Wednesday night softball league playoffs.  They had lost their first game last week so were in the losers bracket of the double-elimination tournament.  The bad thing about being in the losers bracket is that you basically keep playing without a break until you lose again.  In our case tonight we won 12-2 at 6:00, and won again 11-2 at 7:00.  We were hanging on at 8:00 through about 4 innings 3-2, but the wheels came off with a six run inning and we ended up losing 8-4.  They needed a pitcher so that's what I played for all three games.  I know it sounds weak, but pitching can wear you out over four hours.  The scary thing is that my regular Thursday night team is in the same spot tomorrow night.  We have to come up through the losers bracket and could play as many as five games back to back.  I know I'm playing shortstop in the first game, but I imagine I'll be pitching after that.  I wish I could have helped Brew Crew out a little more tonight, but I appreciated them asking me and I got to hang out with some folks that I don't get a chance to see very often anymore.

• I HATE it when you go to a restaurant that's basically empty and they seat you right next to everyone else.  When my buddy Andrew came out to have lunch last week we went to Angelo's at around 1:30 so it was fairly sparse.  I'm guessing they have about 20 tables in the place and there were probably about three seated.  Guess where they put us.  They had all four groups of diners sitting in the same corner.  Why do they do that?!?  I'm guessing it's so the waiters can hit every group consistently.  Would it really make a difference if they had to walk an extra 20 feet between tables?  I prefer to dine away from everyone if I can (I'm a little anti-social if I'm being honest).  I'm not picking on Angelo's - Nel and I eat there a lot and we love the place.  They know that I like the two corner booths and will always seat us there and I don't even have to order - they know what I drink and eat and just give a courtesy ask if I want my usual.  Sadly, none of the regular greeters or waiters seemed to be there last week.   

• I HATE it when idiotic smokers throw their cigarette butts out of their car windows.  Smoking doesn't make you a scumbag - being completely inconsiderate of everybody around you (a trait I seem to find in smokers quite often) does!  If you want to smoke in your own car that's fine, just have the common decency to dispose of your "trash" in your own car as well.  I can't believe how often I see this.  It's easy to spot at night, and I REALLY wish cops would pay more attention to this one.

•  While we're on the subject of driving courtesy, here's a lesson - MERGING:  When you come to a situation in traffic where merging is required (3 lanes to 4 - on ramps merging during traffic - etc.) just stagger and DO IT!  If you stagger the lanes, ie-one car from one lane then the other, etc - it will all go faster and smoother.  Getting in front of that ONE car that you refuse to let in is not going to get you home any faster.  We're all in this together people.

• I keep having to add water to our pool all the time.  Where is it going?  I can't see any evidence of a leak and I seriously doubt it's evaporating at that rate.  

• I love my wife, but she drives me crazy ordering at drive-thru's.  Whenever we're picking up fast food (which isn't often) she want's to check out the entire menu when we pull up to it.  I always have to say "one second please" as she decides.  I know what I'm going to get at almost any fast food chain and if there's a decision to be made I just make it.  I have this feeling it's like the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld and we're going to get banned from Whataburger one of these days.

• We have the sweetest, most lovable cat in the world.  This isn't an opinion - it's a scientific fact!

 Here's a live shot of George under the desk as I'm blogging.  He's usually in my lap, but he settled for my feet tonight.  Now I'm going to call it a night and hit the sack - which is going to look like this.....

.....because this is how we sleep EVERY night.  We have a king size bed, but between George on my right and Nel migrating over from the left I get about one linear foot for myself.