Miss me? Didn't think so

I was in Detroit all day yesterday visiting a client. Nothing like getting up at 3:40 am after 3 hours of sleep to catch a way too early flight so that myself and one of my marketing directors can make an early morning meeting. I had so many Cokes that I was vibrating from the caffeine, then I realized it was my cell phone. Then I remembered that I did not own a cell phone so that led to a whole new set of questions. Needless to say I was a bit wired for the day, that and Diego was none to pleased at my answering his call on his girlfriend's cell. Somewhere in Detroit, there's a really pissed off Hispanic man on a Vespa.

Quick recap of all the sports that has to deal with Wisconsin:

1. Bogut selected #1 (gasp), Ersan Ilyasova in the second round who by all accounts could have been a 1st rd pick, if not a lottery pick, if he did not have an injured ankle. Could the Bucks actually get 2 starters in this draft? Also the trade for another young man, Jiri Welsch is a good move. Easy trade for a 2nd rounder next year. Further proof that God loves WI.
2. Brewers losing on the road to the Cubs. Given that the Brewers suck on the road, you didn't need to be Nostradamus' hairdresser to pick that would happen. Cubs have a deal with the devil that God needs to be made aware of.
3. Packers, nothing for a while. Even God's favorite team gets a break occasionally.
4. Mike Wilkinson will make some NBA team's roster as he is an extremely solid player. God loves guys from small towns who work their butts off.

One final note, here's a great interview with Brady Clark from Baseball Digest Weekly. Check out the info on the Brewers new star CF.

Buck Update: Foreigner Edition

Once again the Westwoodies got rained out last night. So, I will use the idea I had for the game recap with a post on the Bucks. I will attempt to use as many album or song titles from an artist in with the post as I can. I hereby choose Foreigner as the Week 1 representative. Why Foreigner you may ask? Well, you may, but I will not be giving you an answer.

Tonight for the NBA draft I fully see Bucks GM Larry Harris, being COLD AS ICE stepping up to the podium stating that the DIRTY WHITE BOY Andrew Bogut, the Aussie who is a LONG LONG WAY FROM HOME, will be the Bucks #1 pick (SAY YOU WILL Larry). Andrew, eyes full of tears, will have DOUBLE VISION as the joy of being named the first overall pick overwhelms him. He will comment on how he has played in the Olympics and starred for the University of Utah, BUT THAT WAS YESTERDAY, and is looking forward to many years in Milwaukee. The local papers will declare him the JUKE BOX HERO and savior of the team.

In other wonderful news,TJ Ford has been cleared to play next season. The fact that the energetic Ford will be back in full force will get every Buck fan HOT BLOODED for the upcoming season. His extreme quickness and URGENT style of play will amount to the Bucks playing HEAD GAMES with opponents next season as teams will scratch their heads at how to stop them. All this will lead to the Bucks winning the NBA title with Michael Redd holding the trophy saying "I've BEEN WAITING FOR A GIRL LIKE YOU".

Feel free to comment on what band you would like to see me use in further editions.

Weekend Jeopardy

Time for installment #2 of Weekend Jeopardy where we all get caught up on what the hell happened.

A: This inflatable item enabled CC's son, Adam, to have the most kickass party (with approx 40 kids in attendance, plus adults) in the Twin Cities since Prince adopted 3 cats and colored them all purple.

Q: What is a jump house or moonwalk? Correct


A: This woman was the driving force behind the party, came up with the concept and made sure that all the guests had plenty of high-quality beverages, cupcakes and ice cream treats (6 varieties) and is overall far too good of a wife for CC.

Q: Who is Rachel? Correct


A: This team was easily handled by the Brewers this weekend.

Q: Who are the Minnesota Twins? Correct. We also would have accepted the MN Wussies.


A: The overall attendance at Miller Park this year and average per game and also the projected overall attendance.

Q: What is 967,770 with an average of 27,650 and a total of 2.177 million? Correct.


A: This man will become the Bucks' #1 pick in the upcoming draft on Tuesday and help to lead the team to the playoffs this coming basketball season.

Q: Who is Andrew Bogut? Correct.


There you have it, another edition for the books. There is so much going on about the stadium here in MN and if one should be built for the Twins. This weekend there were over 110k people at Miller Park for the Brewers/Twins series and about 35-40% of them were Twins fans, I would say. If people are willing to drive that far to see their team in a beautiful outdoor stadium, that should tell the lawmakers enough as to how dedicated that fan base is, and that they would easily be around 2.3-2.5 million/yr in attendance should a new one be built for the Twinkies. So you see an incinerator, a blah skyline or a billboard of Daisy Fuentes in a bikini in the background, it doesn't matter (OK, that would matter to me). The people just want a good stadium where they can sit under the open sky and have a good time watching baseball.

Splitsville

The Brewers win a thrilling game yesterday 8-7 over the hated Cubbies. Bill Hall is simply a stud. The 3B/SS is delivering on all the potential the club ever saw. Since getting consistent playing time he's been just phenominal. In the month of June alone, he's hitting .329/.352/.694 with 7HR and 13RBI. In the beginning of the season it was Clark and Overbay carrying this club, now it's Hall and Lee with Clark still putting up solid numbers. They have still outscored thier opponents 311-299. This team is better than it looks. A team with a similar run scoring situation are the MN Twins who come into town (320-289). The Twins are struggling right now and they bring Radke to the mound tonight who is having problems of his own. I predict a win for the Crew tonight and in the series as well. It's time for the Crew to jump on teams when they are down and take this series at home. Shane and I would have gone down for this series as we did last year, however my son's big 5 year b-day bash is this weekend and it's going to be a blast. Have a great weekend all!

Buck it!

Terry Porter gets fired about 6 weeks after being told he will be around for the last season on his contract. I'm a bit pissed. Terry is a class act and was given a low amount of overall talent to work with in year one and made it a playoff team. His squad got killed by injuries last year and with no upgrading being done, the predictable happened, the Bucks lost a bunch of games. This had better be related to helping keep Redd. Maybe the Bucks were called by one of the available names out there (Flip Saunders) and couldn't pass it up. I'm not a huge Flip Saunders fan frankly. Yes, he did do a decent job in MN, but he had KG. He just lost control of his team and really doesn't impress me. Guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens though.

Since we're on the topic, the NBA draft is fast approaching and it seems all but formalized that Bogut is going to be drafted #1 by the Bucks. He would help the Bucks win more games immediately and thus help get Redd signed, which is priority #1. The more I read and hear about Bogut, the more I like him. I originally stated that I'd rather have Williams, but I'll officially do a John Kerry and flip-flop to Bogut. He's a hell of an athletic big man and can certainly run the floor, plus he's an outstanding passer. Watch the 3 pointers fly this year if teams collapse on the big man. Kick it out Bogut!

Brew Crew
Brewers won last night as Carlos Lee keeps going with his NL RBI lead. In a contest at the beginning of the year, we had to pick (among other things) the MVP for each league. I got laughed at when I picked Carlos. He's hitting .280/.340/.556 with 19 HR and 64 RBI. That is a pace of over 40 HR and 130 RBI. Suddenly my pick is not so laughable anymore, is it? It won't happen unless the Brewers start winning, but they will. They get to a .500 season and Carlos has those numbers, he'll be in the running.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my neighbor Shane and his family for the water fight in the backyards last night. That was the definition of summer right there.

Grog Blog

Grog is back from his latest road trip with the Brewers in Philly, Tampa and Toronto; so let's see what his latest travels brings us:

Philadelphia
This city called "City of Brotherly Love". Grog not swing that way. Grog very impressed by city history. Lots of men who liked to fight. Grog favorite is Rocky. Grog ran up steps just like in movie and sang "Eye of Tiger". Man call Grog stupid tourist. Grog take man's cheese steak and eat it. Grog like so much that go to Pat's to get more. Have to remember to try this with neighbor's cats instead of steak. Philly mascot and Grog get along good. Brewers swept by stupid Phillies. Grog pee in their Gatorade container after last game. Now who laughing Ha Ha!

Tampa
Nice city. Grog lay on beach to get tan. Wish Rachel was here so Grog can rub lotion on her legs and arms and (CC: Back to the report Grog! Ok Ok Cheeseboy). Grog reunited with Prince Fielder. Grog and Prince get along great. Got to start up Monopoly games that we played in spring training along with Weeks. Weeks cheats at game. Always does. Grog hang Weeks up by underpants in shower to teach him lesson. Grog and Prince get into hot dog eating contest. Prince won. Grog hang him up in shower with Weeks for spite.

Toronto
People strange here. All keep saying "eh" at end of sentence. Annoying. They no like baseball here, only hockey. Players must be that way too as Brewers win 2 of 3 games. Grog see they have hotel by stadium. Grog get room there and moon players during game. Canadian beer make Grog do silly things. Grog like that. Police say Grog not funny. Grog tell joke. Police still not think Grog funny. Doug Melvin help Grog out. Doug nice guy. Bad card player, but nice guy.

I'm not too sure I'm going to let Grog out of the country again any time soon. The Crew lose again to the Cubs last night. Hate losing to the Cubs. I was born and raised in WI close to the IL border and hate the IL teams more than any other. C'mon offense, get it in gear. By the way, ESPN has a nice column on the young crop of Brewers.

Rained Out

The Westwoodies got rained out last night when some big-time storms came through the Twin Cities area yesterday afternoon and even though the storms were through the area in plenty of time prior to the game, the fields were no good, thus games were cancelled. Sorry for all those coming here to check out the recap of the game.

The Brewers lost a tough one last night to the Cubbies 5-4. One of those games where the Brewers got behind early and just stayed one step behind the whole game. Ohka did his best impression of Brad Radke, giving up early runs, then settling down for some solid innings. I like Ohka and think he'll be a nice addition to the pitching staff this year. As I posted yesterday, the Brewers have a very good pitching staff and there are simply going to be days like yesterday. The Crew should come back strong today as I have a good feeling about tonight's game. I'm going to call the score 7-2, Brewer win. Grog will be checking in tomorrow with the road report.

Weekend Jeopardy

Welcome to the newest edition of the Oracle site, Weekend Jeopardy. You all know how the TV show game works and I figured it would be interesting (and maybe fun) to do future weekend recaps this way. I'll include some from W-F as well, given I was out of town. Here we go:

A: CC got to see several monuments over 3 hours of sightseeing after meetings last Thursday and was floored when he overheard a lady tell her granddaughters kneeling at the Vietnam Memorial while pointing to a name "Yes, that's your grandfather" in this US city.

Q: What is Washington, DC? Correct


A: This team went a disappointing 3-6 on their last road trip, but won their last 2 games by an identical score of 5-2.

Q: Who are the Milwaukee Brewers? Correct


A: After the last Packers (who by the way got an 11.7% increase in revenue last year, still at 10th in the NFL overall) minicamp, this DB has the inside track to start opposite Al Harris at the other CB spot by making good plays and showing excellent, penalty-free coverage and could be the biggest key in making Jim Bates' defensive scheme work.

Q: Who is Joey Thomas? Correct


A: Arguably the best clutch performer in NBA Finals history, one of this site's favorite basketball players, overall outstanding hustle guy and holds the NBA Finals record for most career 3 pointers.

Q: Who is Robert Horry? Correct


A: This team's pitching staff has the #3 ranking in the NL (7 overall) of 3.82 ERA, #1 (3) of .244 BAA and #5 (13) 1.34 WHIP and is the sole reason this team is even within sniffing distance of a .500 record, despite a slightly below average offense.

Q: Who are the Milwaukee Brewers? Correct


A: Craig and Shane saw this outstanding movie at the Mall of America on Saturday night while their wives went around shopping.

Q: What is Batman Begins? Correct


A: This team plays a pivotal contest tonight to move up to 3rd place in the division standings, and whose recaps on Tuesdays are more anticipated for than the winner of The Amazing Race?

Q: What is the Westwood Softball Club? Correct

Back, but being busy bumbling

I got back last night from a couple of days in DC meeting with one of our work vendors. Meetings went great and I was able to spend about 2 1/2 - 3 hours in the national mall to check out the monuments. That was fantastic. I'll put more up about this on Monday. I got to get caught up and general bumbling around my desk. Saturday and Sunday is a family reunion for my wife's family, so I can not post anything this weekend. Laters!

Ahhhh, just Tuesday

Almost too damn depressing to talk about the Brewers, so let's talk about some quality ball, the Westwood Softball Club! But first, I must comment on Prince Fielder getting called up to the bigs, if nothing else than to DH. Time to see what the heralded rookie crop can now do. Prince started out 0-4 last night, but it was his first game. I expect that he'll get at least a game or two at 1B, just to see how he does. Besides, Overbay could use a break anyway. The next two weeks should be interesting to say the least. I'm predicting Prince will go yard twice while up, both over 400 feet.

Last night the might Westwood club was down 2 regulars and had to get replacements, but they still emerged victorious over Union Church 11-5. Things were tight after the first inning with the score knotted up 3-3, thanks to some inexplicably poor fielding by the Westwoodies. The source was found out as UC had a voodoo shaman using all of his black arts against us in the field. This issue was solved when a dog ran by and took his voodoo bag and ran off with it, with the shaman in chase. After several innings of good defense and little scoring, UC knew they were in trouble when in sixth inning when Westwood scored 4 times to take a 8-5 lead, so they enlisted the help of their druids, who started their rain dance/ceremony in hopes that a rainout would save them from defeat. Coming into the top of the seventh it seemed as though their druids would indeed succeed, but the Westwoodies scored another 3 runs to put the game away. A rain-soaked and defeated UC team was easily put away in the bottom of the seventh to preserve the victory. The Westwoodies showed how important the fans are and solidified thier status as fan favorites when even in the rain they stayed after for 2 minutes to sign autographs for all 7 fans in attendance.

This will be it for me until Friday as I'll be in Washington DC on a client visit. Hoping that I'll be able to get in some touristy sightseeing as I've never been there before. My hotel is right by the National Mall, so I should be able to check out the Lincoln Memorial (which is the one memorial I've always wanted to see) and I've been told I should see the Vietnam Memorial. Give you all a report when I get back.

Swept away

Well, it finally happened, the Brewers get swept on the road. Can't say I'm surprised though. This team has been absolutely horrid on the road this year. Their 11-22 record gives them the 5th worst road record in the NL and they have the 8th worst in the whole league. Sheets did a fantastic job and put the team in a position to win, but got no help (hmmm have we heard this before?). True, it was the Phillies who are just playing out of their minds right now that beat them, but still it's disheartening.

I'm thrilled at the trade of Spivey for Ohka. The Brewers get a good pitcher that could blossom into a solid #3. My opinion of this trade and the calling up of Weeks is the same as most Brewers fans: "It's about time". The infield of the future is 3/4 of the way there. Hall at 3B, Hardy at SS (who got a big plug in ESPN's magazine this week), Weeks at the 2B. The final piece will be Fielder next year. Let the fun begin!

Fun stuff
I got to finally meet my blogging buddies, SBG and Cheer or Die, as we had a luncheon gathering on Saturday, along with Shane. They all went to Canterbury after lunch to spend the day losing money on the ponies and I went back home to visit with one of my best friends, Murph, who was up to see the in-laws for the weekend. Fatherhood suits Murph quite well as he was in rare form and as always was entertaining as hell to get together with. It was great seeing everybody and I certainly do look forward to seeing all of them again. Thanks for a great Saturday guys!

Sunday I got to have my kids help me wash my car. It turned into a water squirting fest with my son's super soaker and the hose. Needless to say, my car got cleaned, the kids and myself got soaked and we all had a blast. Another fun dad moment.

The Fab Five

What seems to be everybody's favorite recurring topic is back. Let's give into our voyeuristic inner self and see how other people's lives are on blogspot, shall we?

UK Life Coach
Now, this is one profession that I frankly don't get. What you teach people how to live? I kinda got that whole breathing in/out, eating, bathing, toilet trained thing down pat at a pretty young age, but then, I'm pretty exceptional. Anyway, this guy has found some gullible people to pay him tons of money to tell them how to live. Damn, Mr. Crankbutt could make a fortune in this business.

Raed in the Middle
An outstanding site on life in Iraq. Lots of great pictures and just a great insight on what's going on from an Iraqi. Site is mostly in English, give him a gander. He's had over 1 million hits, wow!

Ink in My Coffee
A site about horse racing, making cookies for horses and reading books to horses. If this site was written by a woman, Freud would have a field day. But given it's written by a guy, hmmm....

Amante
A spanish site, my favorite! The author's entries are all poems. My favorite one goes like this (translated): "The trash can rumbles down the streets, I really don't like beets, sometimes gum sticks to my shoe, maybe I should tell this cat shoo!, I like burritos really hot, looks like Tums will hit the spot"

Everything Marine Corps
Just a site to buy Marine Corps merchandise, and links to other Marine Corps sites. Sorry Rachel, no pictures of guys in uniforms...

Special Report

We interrupt this blog for an important announcement:
Everyone named Shane, Brian, Ken, Chris, Evelyn and Steve; you have all been found to be defective and are being recalled. Please report to the nearest DMV office and let them know you are there to be recalled and they will assist you from there. Now, back to the Oracle of Cheese blog, already in progress.

... so that is how sheep's bladders can be used to predict earthquakes.

Brewers
The Crew takes 2 of of 3 from the Yanks and I couldn't be happier. Yes, they got spanked pretty good last night, but there was a time (say the last 5 years of interleague play) when I would have been happy not to have been swept by them. Carlos Lee is having a stellar month of June (.559 OBP 3 HR and 11 RBI) and has really picked it up. He is everything the Brewers were hoping they were getting in the offseason trade.

Giving my first SHOUT OUT (a la SBG) to my mother-in-law Sandy. She was awarded the Volunteer of the Year by the Friends of the Library in Princeton, MN last night. Great job Sandy!

Feel free to check out my Mock Debate article between the defensive coordinator for the Packers Jim Bates and Chicken Little over at fantasyfootballexperience.com.

Joke of the Day

A woman was going swimming in her backyard pool and noticed that a frog was in the pool treading water, unable to climb out.

The frog said to her, "If you release me from this trap, I will grant you three wishes."

The woman freed the frog, and the frog said, "Thank you, but I failed to mention that there was a condition to your wishes. Whatever you wish for, your husband will get times ten."

The woman said, "That's okay." and for her first wish, she wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the world.

The frog warned her, "You do realize that this wish will also make your husband the most handsome man in the world, an Adonis whom women will flock to. "

The woman replied, "That's okay, because I will be the most beautiful woman and he will have eyes only for me."

So, KAZAM! she's the most beautiful woman in the world.

For her second wish, she wanted to be the richest woman in the world.

The frog said, "That will make your husband the richest man in the world and he will be ten times richer than you ".

The woman said, "That's okay, because what's mine is his and what's his is mine."

So, KAZAM! she's the richest woman in the world.

The frog then inquired about her third wish, and she answered, "I'd like a mild heart attack."

Moral of the story: Women are clever. Don't mess with them.

Attention female readers: This is the end of the joke for you. Stop here and continue feeling good.

Attention male readers ONLY: Please contine.

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The man had a heart attack ten times milder than his wife.

Moral of the story: Women are really not as smart as they think. Let them continue to think that way and just enjoy the show.

PS: If you are a woman and are still reading this, it also proves that women never do as they are told!

Yeah, I'm in trouble with this one, but sometimes, you just gotta do it.

Brewers Draft
I like the pick of Ryan Braun as the first round pick for the Crew. They are still going with the best player available in the draft and I cannot argue with the results they have acheived. Third Base was a need and this guy will be in the bigs within the next 2 years. I was hoping for Jeff Clement as the Crew needs a catcher, but I'm happy. The future just keeps getting brighter and brighter with this team.

Grog Blog

Back again from his latest road trip, Grog gives us the report from his travels with America's Team, the Milwaukee Brewers:

San Diego
Grog back in California. Grog happy to be here. Lots of pretty women in small, tight outfits. None hold candle to Rachel. Grog get to visit Balboa Park. Able to lay out in hammock. Brewers play bad against Padres. Grog in bad mood. Grog go to fish taco place. Ask man behind counter if there cat taco place. Man laugh at Grog. Grog grab man and throw him into dumpster. No mess with Grog when in bad mood.

Los Angeles
Grog rent convertable and drive along coast to LA to relax. Grog meet many famous people. Grog go to party by man named Tommy Lee. He play drums for band, Motley Crue. Grog like drums. Tommy fun guy. Grog get to drink as much as want. Tommy and friends very impressed with Grog drinking. Grog make many people laugh. Grog jump into pool from balcony. Grog have wild time. Grog drink too much and get frisky. Grog make out with Anna Nicole Smith. Find out not hard to do as anyone can. Hope Rachel forgive Grog. Paris Hilton hit on Grog. Grog able to just blow her over as she so skinny. Grog at party for whole time in LA, last 4 days. Grog hung over on flight home. Now Grog needs to sleep.

I was afraid that Grog would party too much in LA. I cannot say I blame him.

Westwood Softball Club
The Westwoodies lost a heartbreaker in the heat last night 19-18 to Al's Boozehounds. The Westwoodies bumbled around on defense in the field much like the Vikings did last season. Once again, a Westwood opponent resorted to distractions and cheating to achieve victory. Al's brought in exotic dancers with poles to distract the Westwoodies, thus leading to many errors in the field. The Boozehounds also simply ran over the Westwoodies on the basepaths with no call from the umpire as he was also distracted by said dancers. Even with everything seemingly against the Westwoodies, victory was almost achieved. A 2 out single in the bottom of the seventh sealed the victory for the Boozehounds as when the ball was hit, all of the dancers ran out towards the right fielder in a last ditch effort to keep him from the ball in time to throw out the runner attempting to score. Apparently the other teams in the league that were scouting the Westwoodies liked this tactic as they all eagerly got the ladies numbers. Come to think of it, so did several of the Westwoodies.

Packin' it in

Bunch of topics today:

First, I got to watch my nephew play some Senior Ball, it's the league after Little League, at least in SE WI. He did a good job, got walked twice which is showing something, given he's about 5'10" and only 14 yrs old. Showed good plate patience and it payed off. He scored both times in a 9-6 win for his team, the Cardinals over the Dodgers. They have the same unis as the big leaguers so it was kinda cool. My brother (his dad) is their coach and does a decent job. It was probably the only time I'll root for the Cards, the bastards (noooo, I'm not bitter about them at all).

The Brewers had a miserable road trip, but I'll leave the details of that to Grog with his report tomorrow. The Crew host the Yankees who are in a serious slump. The Crew needs to right this ship in a hurry, but I'm not feeling all that great about this 3 game homestand.

I was talking with one of my wife's cousins, Tim, who grew up in WI, but has lived in MN for quite a few years as well and is a Vikes fan. I respect his opinion on football with the Vikes and Packers as he is a very well balanced fan. He knows as much if not more than the casual Packer fan about the Packers. He's a realist, that's what I like about him so much. We were tossing football back and forth discussing our respective teams. His comment was simply that Javon would be playing this season and not to worry about things now. Javon knows the offense and is undoubtedly keeping himself in shape by working out at the U of Miami. No gloating about the Packers offseason, just simple advice. So that's what I'm going to follow, no bashing of Javon any longer, if he's there great, if not, move on.

On the Road Again

Well, the family and I are off to B-Town, WI this afternoon for the graduation/confirmation of godchild #2 on Sunday. Saturday is a birthday party for another of my nephews, so it's just a big party weekend for us.

Brewers
Sheets is just off this year. He's having to get the rust off yet again from an injury. His next start will be better, and the Brewers really need him to be the dominant ace he can be. The Crew did enough to win a typical game last night, but tough to do when you give up 3 HR. The Brewers also are striking out quite a bit lately. In 3 of thier last 5 losses, they have double digit strikeouts as a team.

F*ck 'Em Bucky!

I know it's a little late on this but...

Border Battle
2004-05 Final Standings - Wisconsin 235, Minnesota 205

It's great to be an alum of the UW. Once again the Badgers prove their superiority over the Goophs by claiming the Border Battle Cup. I recall after the Goophs were up 185-75, my neighbor Shane was wanting to bet me to end his losing ways over the bets we have. I almost did it out of pity just so he could win one. However, I decided that I was never going to concede any such thing to him and did not place a wager. Boy, am I kicking myself over this one. The Badgers took 160 of the last 180 points to claim the Border Battle Cup. Just one more piece of hardware that the U of M will not have in it's trophy case. Now, you may all dance at your computers while playing House of Pain's "Jump Around" in your heads, the official song of the student sections at UW Football games.

Brew Crew
Finally put together a complete game against a tough SD squad. Feels good to not get swept and now they head off to LA. Let's hope for a series win there. Nice job by Lee and Jenkins to provide the long ball spark we know they possess. I predict Lee will go yard again tonight. He tends to hit a HR in consecutive games.

Grrrrrr

Anybody else out there feel like the Brewers are underachieving right now? I know the franchise has been awful for the past decade plus, but I guess I was expecting more after the offseason they had. There have been times when they have put it together, but this feels frustrating like a car having engine problems. You know it can get revved up, but the multiple stuttering and backfires just infuriate you. The mechanics at the garage seem to fix it for a couple of days, then all the problems start over. They tell you that brand new parts are being made at the factory, but they will take a while to get to the garage. So you hope. You hope and pray that your car holds together a little bit longer, along with your patience until then. There's my analogy for the day.

Tonight I am off to the Twins game with my neighbor Shane. It's going to be a great night tonight, in the upper 60's, beautiful skies, so we'll be heading indoors. Man I hope that stadium bill gets passed. For all the info that's fit to print, check out Shane's blog, as he is THE authority on what is going on with the Twins stadium.