floyd rayford, hitting coach for the quad city river bandits, is one of the funniest people i've ever met. short and a bit pudgy and an eight-year major leaguer, floyd's got stories about just about every major league ballplayer you'd ever be interested in. floyd also knows his way around an insult.

players and coaches arrived in davenport from spring training this morning and, as i arrived to work, floyd and our trainer, cory, were unpacking their stuff and transporting it into the clubhouse. i entered the stadium, and began to walk towards floyd and cory, planning to greet them. however, floyd got the first glimpse of me and sighed (read this in your best stereotypical "black dude" voice) "...the shit you see when you don't got your gun."

and, for me, that meant that baseball season is back underway. 42 hours away. woof.

bought the white stripes' elephant today, and i can't give you an opinion. (the following is included to increase traffic on the quickly-becoming-useless 'shout out' feature.) on an impulse (and rationalizing that i was purchasing part of the white stripes' album via gift card) i also purchased bob dylan's bringing it all back home. i've not been through it - - only got the first five tracks or so before returning to listen to elephant - - but i have a feeling it'll bring on a need. or perhaps it won't. joni mitchell's blue has been sitting there, my only joni album, for three years now. and i love love love it.