May 18, 2006 - 1:01 PM

The Cat's Pajamas, the Bees Knees

I just realized that Newt, the little tail-less munchkin up there in the top right, would be ten years old this month. She was born in May of '96, and I got her from my friend Rachel in June when she was about 4 weeks old. I miss her. Happy Birthday, Newt, wherever you are.

*******
After dwelling in the cellar for the first month, the $500 team that Tony and I co-manage has climbed its way up to 10th place. It's mostly been our hitting that's been underperforming (and suffering from various injuries), but they've been coming around lately. We've been especially lucky with the way Scott Podsednik has suddenly refound his speed and ability to hit, as has Dave Roberts, who we sneakily picked up after another team dropped him while he was struggling. We'll also be receiving a boost tomorrow when highly touted youngster Francisco Liriano joins the starting rotation for the Minnesota Twins. Some are heralding him as the second coming of Johan Santana. He should provide quite a compliment to our staff of Barry Zito, John Lackey, Javier Vazquez, and Erik Bedard.

In other fantasy baseball news, I'm hanging on to second place in the league with Nick, LDBL, Tony, Matt, and Phil. Nick's in first by a wide margin and doesn't seem ready to relinquish his grip, while Tony and Matt fight for third place, breathing down my neck with severity. My pitching staff here has rebounded from a miserable first month, led by Johan and Jason Schmidt, but my hitting has gone a little limp lately.

My third league with Phil and his friends finds me rising from second to last into the middle of the pack. I don't know what to do with that team. It was the first one that I drafted, and thus isn't the best put-together. Plus, many of the players are just inconsistent as hell. Frustrating. Phil's flirting with first in this one.

********
The season finale of Gilmore Girls last week left me ambivalent. It was cool to see a town full of troubadours, strumming away, including Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chole from 24), Sam Phillips, and Libbie Schrader (who I saw the next day at the Hotel Cafe). But I've almost lost interest in the doings of Lorelei and Rory. It's realistic and brave for the writers to have the main characters make choices that aren't nice or popular or safe; they make mistakes and fall to their foibles like us. I'm just not sticking around to watch them be human if I don't like them anymore.

The West Wing series finale was sweet. Light on plot, but still touching. They wrapped things up nicely, had people transition and grow up, and gave nods back to events from the previous seasons. I was also happily surprised to see Keb' Mo' performing "America the Beautiful" at the inauguration. My first year at Amherst, he peformed in the campus center, and that was one of his encores. It was amazing. Everyone in the audience stood when he played it, and I got shivers.

Scrubs gets one last season on NBC next year. Babies for everyone! And can I tell you that I think Elizabeth Banks is the bees knees?

Ted and Robin finally got together on How I Met Your Mom? And yet, Robin is not the titular "Mom"? Grrr. By the way, I think that Cobie Smulders, who plays Robin, is also the bees knees.

Why won't Alias end already? I keep tuning in each week because I think it's the series finale, but they just keep going and going and going. God. Annoying.

Doctor Who? I don't know why I keep watching that one either. It's not particularly brilliant. But it is fun and cheeky and, Billie Piper? Definitely bees knees material.

********
Mission Impossible Three. Keri Russell is very pretty and plays the badass very well. Maggie Q (short for Quigley) is very pretty and plays the badass very well. Billy Crudup is very pretty and plays the badass ok. Tom Cruise is nuts. Anyone else think the first scene with Crudup, where Ethan meets him at a 7-11 type convenience store, was a nod to Billy's Mastercard commercial where he's the cashier at that type of store?

And while some people will note the resemblance between Michelle Monaghan and Katie Holmes, I think Monaghan looks like the lovechild of this person and this person. I am also crazy.

*********
I'm having dinner with LDBL and Mer tomorrow, then going out to Alta Dena to see Hanneke Cassel with them. So excited. On Saturday, I'm probably going to drive down south to San Juan Capistrano to see Hanneke again. Anyone want to tag along?

Now Listening To : Broken Social Scene- You Forgot It In People
Random Thought : Tetsuooooooooo! Kanedaaaaaaaaaa!

What I Just Wrote Before - What I'm About to Write

The Five Most Recent Entries

Here's a hand-picked playlist of 40-plus songs for you to listen to: