Randomness

- I'm sick of hearing about Michael Vick. It seems like that's all that I hear about. Sports news, regular news, etc. I can't wait for Monday to get here, so he can get his sentencing, and hopefully this will start to go away.

- One question I have about Vick, even though I said I am sick of hearing about him, is why he will get off with such little time in prison? The other big story this summer is about the NBA ref who has plead guilty to gambling. He could get 25 years, while Vick might get 2 years maximum. Sara and I were watching TV one night, when the NBA ref gambling case was being discussed, and Sara asked why he would get so much time in prison for something like gambling? I never really had thought about it before then, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes, especially in the context of the Vick case. The ref conspired to help some people make a few extra bucks, and yes, as a result some people lost money because of his actions as well. Those people were going to bet anyways, so there was going to be some losers and winners on those games...big deal. Vick bankrolled an operation where dogs killed each others, and if some dogs weren't to his liking after he trained them he would kill them in a pretty gruesome way. I'm not a judge, but to me Vick's actions seem a lot more criminal, and should deserve the more severe punishment.

- Today is the first day of the school year for Blake. Its crazy to think how fast the summer went. I remember when I was a kid, the summers seemed to last forever.

- Following the Tigers the past few weeks has been like riding a rollercoaster. They've been up, down, and generally just all over the place. My jinxing is still in effect. I didn't watch the game against the Yankees last Thursday, and they won. I watched them the rest of the weekend (thanks to Polio for the mlb.tv account), and they lost. I didn't watch them last night, and they won. A coincidence? I think not. Sara did wear one of my Tigers shirts last night when they won, so she's been instructed to wear that shirt some more to see if maybe she's a good luck charm. Time will tell....

- Sara had her bi-weekly appointment with the doctor the other day. The doctor gave us instructions on what kind of signs we should look for to know that Tucker is on his way, and when to call her and where to go. It made me realize that we're starting to get real close to the due date now. I'm sure it'll really start to set in once we start taking our classes at the hospital.

- I am having a huge craving for Chipotle.

- A few friends went up to DC recently to see the Dave Matthews Band show. I realized that this is the first year since 1996 (when I started following them) that I probably won't be seeing them. I'm still stuck on 49 shows and counting.

- Sara and I are going to see Ryan Adams here in Charlottesville in a few weeks. I'm pretty excited, as I've been wanting to see him for a few years now, and I've been wanting to see some live music.

- We took an afternoon trip out to the Blue Ridge Parkway a couple of weekends ago. Even though we only live a half-hour away, we rarely think of going there whenever we're trying to think of something to do. Blake really liked it. He said that once Sara has the baby, she can stay home and do baby stuff with Tucker, and he and I can go back there and go hiking. Here's some pictures:

Roastin!

- It's been hot here lately. It's been in the 90's for what seems like forever, and yesterday when I got home from work, the local station said it was 100, with a heat index of 110. I don't know if I've ever felt it as hot as it was yesterday. I ran to the grocery store last night, around 8:30, and it was still too hot to ride with the windows down. I can't imagine what Sara is going through, having to deal with being pregnant in this hot weather.

- Sara had a regular check-up the other day. Everything looks like its going along good. We're down to about 13 weeks or so to go. It seems like its still a long way off, but I'm sure it'll fly by quickly. I think we're going to sign up for some crash course parenting classes at the hospital. I am going to need all the help I can get. So far all I know is that the bottle goes in the mouth, and the diaper goes around the butt. How the diaper gets on there...I still need to figure that part out.

- Tigers are still sucking it up. It looks like they'll lose 2 of 4 against Tampa Bay, and things won't be getting easier since they play Cleveland and New York in something like 13 of their next 17 games. Luckily Cleveland hasn't done anything to distance themselves from the Tigers, but the Nazi's (Yankees) have been on a tear of late, and could complicate the chase for the wild card spot (though, to be honest, I really want a division title, and not have to settle for a wild card spot again). Hopefully Rodgers and Zumaya will get back in the rotation soon and pitch the way they're capable of, and Sheffield will get back to full strength. Bonderman also needs to get back on track and pitch, as he's pitched like crap the last couple of outings. I guess if nothing else, it'll make for a exciting August and September.

- Lions have their first preseason game tonight. You can never read too much into pre-season games, but it still will be interesting to see how they come out and play tonight. It will be interesting to see how the potent the offense will be, since they have the weapons to at least make things fun to watch for once.

- So Barry Bonds finally broke the home run record. I'm not sure how I feel about it. On one hand I'm glad its over...I got sick of hearing about it everyday. For the 2 minutes I watched Sportscenter in the morning (mostly to check the Tigers score, if I didn't know it already) it seemed they were always talking about it. On all the morning news programs, they talked about the impending record breaker home run, and all the news and sports websites I read, it seemed it was the #1 topic of discussion. The most exciting part for me, was when he was in San Diego last weekend, I was wondering if my buddy Sean would be at the game where Bonds would tie/break the record (Sean wasn't...he went to the Friday and Sunday games, but not the Saturday game, where Bonds actually tied the record). I think that if I knew that Bonds record was going to be a record that was going to stand for an indefinite amount of time, and no one's career looked like they were on the trajectory to break it, I think I would be hating the fact that Bonds has the record. It looks like that won't be the case though, as there's already a couple people in line (A-Rod, for one) who barring any setbacks, will probably demolish whatever Bonds' mark will end up at. I only wish that Griffey, Jr. couldn't have stayed healthy all his career, and been the one to break Hank Aaron's mark.