Soon to be framed above my refrigerator:

Well, amazon took down the picture of the album cover I had linked to here. Which means it might have been bogus.

Whatcha knowin? In my case, here's some things. [An odder sounding sentence I've rarely typed]

I've enjoyed the fact that I work downtown this week because when the 5:00 whistle blows I can just take a stroll a few blocks over to Minute Maid park and watch some baseball. [There isn't actually a 5:00 whistle at my office, though I wish there was. Where do you have to work to have one? Are only employees of prehistoric stone quarries so lucky?] The Astros are playing a 3-game series against St. Louis this week, so on Monday I went with my dad and brother and unfortunately saw the Cardinals lose 10-3. As luck would have it, Rella had two extra tickets to the next game. So Tuesday night my dad and I went with Rella and Tater-Bob (a name Kasey would be foolish to believe he'll ever grow out of) and unfortunaly we watched the Astros win again, 2-1. I'd estimate that I've seen the Cardinals play in Houston 20 times in my lifetime, and I seriously doubt they've won more than 3 of those games. They've beaten the Astros plenty of times here, just hardly any of the games at which I've been present. So I told Kyle after the game that should Houston and St. Louis meet in the playoffs, I've got a secret weapon to ensure victory: not attending the game. On a semi-related note, after tonight the Astros have three more home games. Drew and I made a casual pact to go to at least one game together every season, but barring some quick planning- it doesn't look good for this year.

I'm going to continue with what some might call "boring" baseball talk. I'm the one at the keyboard and there's no one here to stop me. Right now, the Cardinals are 103-55. They need to win all 4 of their remaining games to set the team record for wins in a season. They had a record of 106-48 in 1942. So that's what I'm hoping for the rest of the week. Unless they lose all 4 games, they'll have the best record in the league, but that doesn't really mean much come playoff time. I did some data compiling yesterday (probably too much of it) and found that 1998 was the last year the team with the overall best record went on to win the World Series. Baseball split each league into divisions in 1969 (east and west initially, added central in '93) and in the 34 seasons that more than two teams have made the postseason, the #1 team won it all only 8 times. My point is that I'm nervous even though the Cardinals are having possibly their best reason record-wise. I've been a Cardinals fan for as long as I can remember, something I inherited from my dad. I'm fairly enthusiastic about sports in general (I can watch ESPN in larger doses than anyone else I know) and the Cardinals are far and away my favorite team of any sport. Ahead of A&M's football team. The last year they won a title was 1982, and I obviously don't remember that, nor do I remember them losing to the Royals in 1985. But I remember them losing the World Series to the Twins in 1987. I remember them getting knocked out of the playoffs in 1996 by the Braves. And in 2000 by the Mets. And in 2001 by the Diamondbacks. And in 2002 by the Giants. Enough is enough. This is the longest the team has ever gone without winning a championship. When they finally win again, I'm fairly certain that I'll cry, as strange as that is. Anyway, as this season comes to a close I'm nervous because they're not playing as well as they were earlier in the season. I'd much rather storm than limp into the playoffs.

Ok, I apologize, I realize the length of this diatribe is way out of proportion with anyone else's interest in it. But again, since no one's here to stop me I'm gonna mention one more baseball note. I like Minute Maid park. I hate the name, but the stadium's pretty sweet. On those rare occasions when Houston has a night that isn't nastily muggy, it's nice being able to have an open roof. But I really miss going to games in the Astrodome. Here's what I think: they should play one, maybe two, series a season in the dome. I'm guessing attendance would probably be pretty high due to the nostalgia factor. The problem is that I doubt the Minute Maid people would be willing to give up that revenue, and I doubt the dome people would let the Astros play there for free. So financially I can't see it working even if ticket sales were extremely high, just because those involved wouldn't be able to agree on it. Which sucks because even though the Astrodome was severely outdated and all the concrete gave it quite a cave-quality, it was cool. It was the first dome, c'mon!
Ok, no more baseball.

Who doesn't think ridiculous amounts of food are funny? Tasty, no?

There's this dude in my office building that I've encountered twice in the restroom. There aren't individual restrooms in each office, several companies share the same bathrooms, so I don't know where this particular guy works, but it's irrelevant. I go into the restroom and stand in front of one of the urinals, and this guy walks in a few seconds after me and occupies the urinal next to mine.
"Hey man, how are you?" he enthusiastically says, ignoring the stare-straight-ahead-and-don't-talk routine most men know and follow.
"Doing all right, how bout you?" I answer, uncomfortable talking in a public restroom to a stranger, but not wanting to be rude.
"I'm good, man. Where you from?"
"Um, Kingwood area. You?"
"I'm from Cypress actually. You know it?"
"Yeah, I used to live there actually."
"Oh, is that right? Where exactly?"
"Um, behind the Kroger on Jones Road."
"Oh wow, okay. Well, hey man, I hope you have a great day!"
"Same to you."
And by this time he's finished at the urinal, washed his hands, and gone out the door. And after he's gone I'm finally able to do my business. This guy was young too, not some crazy old man. I'd say he was still in his twenties. Anyhow, that was last week, and on Tuesday I saw him again in the restroom and had an almost identical conversation, content and everything. I guess he didn't remember me, which I see as no reason to complain. People should know when they're being weird like that and stop. And who says 'Hey man, I hope you have a great day'? That's way too drawn out, just say "Have a great day." That bothers me much less.

All right then, easily my longest and most inconsequential post yet. But posts like these are important. You need them so you don't forget.