Friday, 5 September 2003: I was watching "Today" this morning and they were discussing the debate that occurred yesterday in New Mexico involving all nine of the democratic hopefuls for the 2004 Presidential Election. And, as the reporter described, none of them really took potshots at each other. Just at the current Prez. One such comment really cracked me up and I'm surprised my laughing didn't wake Katie up. It was John Kerry and he said (excuse me if I misquote here), "the only jobs that President Bush has created are for the nine of us standing up here right now."

'Nuff said.

Thursday, 4 September 2003: I don't know if I said anything yet about it, but my friend's fantasy football league finally drafted this past weekend. I started tooling around with it a little bit on Monday to see what free agents were available and I made one or two swaps. Nothing major.

Until today, that is. Today could officially have been dubbed "Free Agent Feeding Frenzy" as I dumped seven of the 20 players on my roster and just went to town picking up newbies. It kinda had to be done because I found out that my backup quarterback (Chad Pennington of the Jets) was going to miss the first 12 weeks of the season with a broken wrist. That really does me no good. And when you have to replace a pretty major player like that, it really kicks the re-evaluation bug into full gear. So I dumped my backup quarterback, my backup tight end, and one of my backup running backs. Plus I also ditched all four players on my defense. I replaced my QB and all my defensive players, but, instead of nabbing a new RB and TE, I got two new WRs to test out and see how they do over the first several weeks of the season. Hey, they could become trade fodder later down the line for a better RB. Who knows? Heck, they could even wind up replacing my starting WRs. Anything's possible this early in the season.

Wednesday, 3 September 2003: Let me tell you one thing I learned today. Not quite the hard way, but it was learned all the same... work and alcohol do not mix.

This week is what's known on this campus where I work as "Opening Week". There are all kinds of activities going on like meetings and welcome back orientation sessions for faculty/staff/admin and then there's the big student move in and their fun activities. Well, one of the things I attended was a luncheon at the President's house. And, upon arrival, much to our surprise, we found bottles of beer awaiting us. This was surprising because we are a dry campus. Yes, the Prez's house is well off campus, but it surprised us nonetheless. Of course we partook in such liquid libations. Would you expect us to say no? Hell no. Then about a half hour or so later, I had myself a sangria. They weren't at the bar during the first go around. And these were pretty strong sangrias. Combine that with the fact that I really don't drink nearly as much as I used to and that equals a nice buzz. Then, try to talk to your coworkers whilst enduring said buzz... hmm... fun. Thankfully, a shuttle was provided to take us back to campus from her house. Driving would not have been a good thing at that point in time.

Tuesday, 2 September 2003: Lately, Katie and I have been seeing a lot of TV promos for Heath Ledger's new movie The Order. I'm interested in seeing this even though Katie probably wouldn't go near it being a horror flick. But the one thing that we both noted was how diverse Ledger has been in his roles. He was one of those actors that broke big in the late 90s/early 2000s teen movie craze as the loner rebel in 10 Things I Hate About You. He was so popular afterwards that he was receiving script after script after script. But they were all for teen flicks. He said no. He wanted to try something different. He wanted to expand his repertoire and be a bit more daring. In other words, he didn't want to fall into the trappings of teen movie hell. And he didn't.

His next movie was as Mel Gibson's son in The Patriot followed by a pauper with dreams of being a champion jouster in A Knight's Tale. Now he's in The Order about a priest trying to eliminate a demon and next will beNed Kelly with Ledger in the title role as the infamous Australian gunslinger and outlaw (I'm really looking forward to this one). If I missed any movie roles in this list, I apologize to Heath. C'est la vie. Can't be perfect, can I?

I give him credit. He's trying things out on his terms. Not the likeliest of formulas for success in Hollywood these days. But it seems to be working for him.

Sunday, 31 August 2003: Are you looking for a new hobby? Do you need an effective way to eliminate the stress in your life? Do you have an apple tree in your backyard whose apples are starting to rot? Well then, grab yourself a golf club and join in the latest craze... Apple Golfing!

Yes, while up in McHenry today celebrating Katie's dad's birthday, we were asked if we could help clear the backyard of all the rotting apples laying around. So, Katie, her brothers Scott and Steve, Scott's girlfriend Liz, and I grabbed some irons and we went a whackin'.

Admittedly, I'm no golfer. But I can tell you that some of my swings (once I got out of my early divotting phases) would have flown pretty nicely had these apples not been prone to midair disintegration. And yes, it was a heckuva lot of fun despite taking a lot longer than if we had just gone through with a rake. But what fun is a rake? I don't even rake leaves. I mow them into a bag and dump them. Quicker and more effective. Rakes are a thing of the past, my friend. Who needs 'em.