softball: one win (11-7, 7 innings), one loss (21-0, 2 1/2 innings) on wednesday night, and we'll call it a successful night.

in the mandatory alternating guy-girl-guy-girl lineup, i was stuck in the number nine spot in the lineup, and i came through big time. singled to the left of center with, i think, two outs, leading to a run in the second inning. with bases loaded in the fourth, singled to center to score two runs, then later scored on a triple as part of the four-run fourth, or perhaps fifth.

the line: 2-2, R, 2RBI

played flawless left field, making the only catchable play and not letting anything get past me.

in game two, we played a squad of ringers that had previously come up with 15-0 and 20-0 slaughter victories. we didn't have a chance, and i didn't find myself in the lineup.

we played at a pretty amazing local bar, a place that i'd never really seen. called the dugout, it's got three lighted softball fields and hosts softball every night of the week in the summer and fall, and hosts apparently highly-competitive men's flag football leagues in the spring.

it also brings new definition to the phrase "beer league softball." my dad's league for 25 or so years, a league i, of course, called "beer league," was played at a park. drinking was encouraged afterwards. here, beer is encouraged as a warmup activity, as an in-game refresher, as a between-games fillup (two games per night, it turns out), as another in-game refresher, and as a post-game wind-down. i'm not sure if most teams' second games are more ragged than the first, but i wouldn't be surprised. woof.

most interesting rule: any time a guy walks (count starts at 1-1), he immediately goes to second base. the ensuing girl then can walk, or hit. generally, the girl walks. this way, you can't pitch around a slugger. wild. recreational, too.

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the greatest radio show in the world, the bernstein and boers show on the score, has moved to a 2-6 time slot. their signature segment, the critically-lauded "who ya crappin'?" ("you're the same guy that criticized me when i did have the fire, so who ya crappin'?") has moved to 5:00 p.m. what this means: i step out of work at 4:53, hustle home, and get the show from my bedroom.

problem is, my bedroom's, you know, 200 miles from their transmitter. fifth floor, but the signal's not always good.

so, i hustle home, get upstairs by 5:01, and start to readjust the antenna-thing. i notice that my wire storage hangy things - which have been used as my bookshelf, cd rack, and as a storage area for low-quality autographed baseballs and my alarm clock, stereo (better said - "amplifier with non-functional cd players and cassette decks"), and some of my bobbleheads - for the better part of the past 36 months, had a loose part. so i first readjust the middle (of three tiers up) outside hangy-thingee. and then, crash, not unlike the experience of shel silverstein's ridiculous rose.

two tiers collapse. about 100 cd's, dumped. my limited book collection, to the ground! all eight bobbleheads, down! both large speakers, the aiwa three-disc changer, ka-boom!

but the radio keeps playing, and the signal gets better, and it was good.

three casualties, none major (item, damage, current state)
- Joe Mauer bobblehead, 2003 edition: head spun around, exorcist-style. head has been convincingly returned to its original state.
- Bix Beiderbecke bobblehead, 2004: lost head. thankfully, head can convincingly balance on base, although it is less "bobble-y."

and, most tragically,
- the 2005 kane county cougars dontrelle willis "bobble-leg:" the left leg (that is, the 'push-off'), cracked at the knee. can't fix it. perhaps i'll hang it somewhere.

however, like the cd player during The Great Accident of 2001, the recently-placed-on-the-floor-for-charging-purposes ipod escaped unscathed.

from the "given lemons make lemonade" department, seeing as the plan this weekend was to completely clean the place anyway, i've chosen to completely reshuffle the bedroom furniture, maybe moving the desk to the living room and the "storage table" to the bedroom and perhaps even putting away the 2000 model desktop.

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per coworker duvy's request, watched fx's starved tonight. odd, odd show. they say the word "bullshit," which stunned me. bulimic cop. overeating married guy with several cancelled gastric bypass surgeries. bisexual singer-songwriter chick recovering from both anorexia and chronic overeating, maybe? one other guy, who has a crush on the bisexual chick, who was on a sun and air diet (avoiding earth matter). i may be screwing up the characters; tonight was the first time watching.

their "support group": the belt-tighteners. dave: "i'm dave. and i'm bulimic." all: "that's not okay!" woof!

the good news: it was entertaining and fringe very funny. the bad news: episode seven was also the season finale, so i'll have to wait for the next one. not a waste of my time, however.

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watched bush's address tonight, for about eight minutes. amazing that we elected that man this time. really amazing. he's pretty freakin' dumb. or, at least, he can't speak properly.

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great photos here. seriously. go. now. top three photos, especially. that's one sexy dude. yum. [or here, here, and here. woof-a-rino.]

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update, 12:24 a.m.: just made some template adjustments, adding links and a renamed "heavy rotation" list. i then went overboard. i'll probably dump some at some point.

it seems to look far better on firefox than on explorer. not sure about other browsers. apologies.