What's the Deal with Dallas?

I'm trying to find a rental car for when we visit my brother and his family in January. Check out the screwy rates that I'm finding (click on the image to enlarge):




















With these rates, I can see why everything's bigger in Texas.

Quote of the Day

"If we don't do this, we will be known as the party of Herbert Hoover forever."-- Dick Cheney, as part of his failed effort to convince Senate Republicans to vote for the bailout package for the auto industry.

At Least Someone Thinks I'm Funny

A couple of weeks ago, firedoglake had a contest to come up with an appropriate title for George Bush's autobiography. I tossed out several suggestions (comments # 89, 244, & 269), and got a good laugh at many of the other entries.

This evening I was going through my Google Reader backlog from the holidays, and came across the announcement of winners -- I was surprised and delighted to see that I won. I guess anything's possible, but I'm betting that W won't be using the winning entry, "You Can Fool Enough of the People Some of the Time."

How Not to Advance One's Career

Sitting at my desk at the end of the day, I get a phone call from someone I used to work with, a semi-friend, who's now in a different department at my agency. A former boss of ours has an extra ticket to Saturday's FSU-Maryland football game -- the semi-friend knows I went to FSU law, and asks on the ex-boss' behalf if I'm interested. I immediately answer no, not because I wouldn't want to go, but because I leave town that morning for Thanksgiving in Florida with my family. Ah well, that's how it goes sometimes.

Half an hour later, I reflect on the conversation, and start laughing, realizing only then that I turned down a chance to sit for more than three hours, one-on-one, with one of the people whose name is being bandied about to head my agency.

Facebook is Evil

But I bet you already knew that.

In the Presence of Genius

It's not every day that one finds one's self in the presence of genius, but I was on Friday, at my daughter's birthday celebration (I find it hard to call it a party when the attendees are five adults and two children, including the honoree). You see, when our friend Anna was served her cupcake, she ripped off the bottom half of the cupcake and put it on top of the frosting, in essence creating a frosting sandwich. She said the idea just came to her right then. To be witness to that spark of genius was an experience that only slightly surpassed the bliss of eating a cupcake in that fashion. Indeed, I plan never to eat a cupcake any other way ever again.

And how did I repay her brilliance? By having this exchange with her on Monday morning while I was walking the dogs and she was starting her walk to work, when she was only half awake.

"I realize that I should have carved my Halloween pumpkin into an ox."
"Why, is it something to do with a beer?"
"No, it's because that way my gourd can be an ox."

I fear that genius will never set foot in my house again.

Mugging Belated Update

My last post on the mugging was a couple of months ago, and I apologize for not keeping folks up to date on that front. The trial was scheduled for Thursday, October 2, and in the days leading up to it, I was very stressed. I worried that I would somehow screw up my testimony in a way that would let the actual assailants go free. On the Tuesday before the trial was to begin, I got a message informing me that the defendants pled guilty, meaning that there would be no trial. I was a bit surprised, but that surprise quickly turned to relief that I wouldn't have to testify. My anxiety level subsided immediately, and I've been a much more relaxed individual ever since.

In talking to the U.S. Attorney the following day, I learned that the church that was catty-corner from where the attack took place had a surveillance camera. It panned the area, so that it showed the initial bicycle incident, me talking with the attackers, and me getting up from the attack. So while it didn't have the actual attack, it served to help identify my attackers. So my concern over being unable to identify my attackers with sufficient certainty was for nothing.

Sentencing is scheduled for November 24, and the U.S. Attorney indicated that she expects sentences of roughly 2 years, where the maximum sentence is 3 years. The two defendants are 19, and have no adult criminal records.

As far as the aftermath, my health is pretty good, but not perfect. The feeling has not wholly returned in my teeth, and consequently, I expect I'll have a permanent loss of feeling in the three fron teeth on the upper left side (I put it at roughly 30% loss). While I'd have been happier with a complete recovery, all things considered, I really don't have any complaints. As I've posted before, it could have been much worse.

This was the year I left Blue Cross for a High Deductible Plan, so in that sense my timing couldn't have been worse, as all the medical bills are going to a high deductible. That being said, I'm eligible for a victims' restitution fund, so once the bills are all squared away (that's something still going on), I will be filing with the fund, and hopefully will be compensated for most if not all of my out-of-pocket expenses.

Another Year Has Flashed By

Yep, Emelia is two. So without further ado, here are some recent photos of her.

Wow!

Just, wow. I'm a white male, and this isn't supposed to be my victory. I'm a liberal, and despite the McCain campaign's attempt to label Obama as a socialist, he's a centrist, not a progressive. But somehow his election mattered to me anyhow.

With Bush so unpopular and the economy so bad, given Obama's once-in-a-generation oratorical skill, and the most organized campaign I've ever witnessed, it should have been a walkover. But despite such advantages, and while the outcome seemed inevitable as poll after poll put Obama squarely ahead of McCain, it still was remarkably close. The anxiety over the possibility of a stolen election has faded to dust, and I am so amazingly relieved. And I find myself so incredibly moved by this outcome.

We will soon have a sane president again, after eight years of insanity.

What a Great Comeback! x2

They were in a must-win game last night -- lose and they'd be eliminated from the playoffs. They were banged up, with key players unavailable or trying to play through injuries. They fell behind, and stayed that way until late in the game. But then, to the delight of the home crowd, a late rally that resulted in an improbable victory left them to live another day. I was delighted, even though I recognized that the team still needed to win its next game as well, just to stay alive!

And I was at the game, in the third row, a live spectator to a wonderful win.

Wait, you thought I was talking about the Red Sox win? Well, except for that last sentence, I might as well have been. Yes, in addition to the Sox win that no doubt anyone who cares about sports already knows about, D.C. United played last night -- with two games left in the season, they were one of six teams fighting for the last three playoff spots, and of those six teams, we were on the bottom of the heap. So while a tie technically wouldn't eliminate us, it essentially would have done so.

United has had a disastrous end to the season, having not won a regular season game in nearly two months. And it's been a very long season. In addition to now having played 28 of the 30 games in the regular season, it's had four games in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, three games in the SuperLiga, four games in the U.S. Open Cup, and four games (with two more to be played) in the CONCACAF Champions League -- in other words, it's had more than another half a season of games to play in between its league matches. And the MLS roster rules and salary cap affords very little depth to teams. So fatigue would be enough of a problem even if injuries hadn't hit them, leaving them without some of their key players when they were most needed.

Last night, we had a lineup that included two guys who were playing in the third division two months ago (in baseball terms, think AA), and a forward who was waived at the start of the season by another club and who hadn't scored in the regular season. Three of our five first-choice offensive players (not counting one who has missed all but 15 minutes of the season) started on the bench (or weren't even available), and a fourth was returning from injury to play his first game in a few weeks.

Our opponent ironically was New England, a team that had sown up a playoff spot already but who was looking for home field advantage in its first round game. New England had the run of play early, but soon United had turned it around, and began creating numerous chances. However, United wasn't able to get the goal it sorely needed, its best chance of the first half bouncing off the crossbar, and the half ended in a scoreless tie. In the second half, United again controlled the pace of the game, but a disastrous turnover led to an easy goal by New England in the 58th minute, and suddenly we were half an hour from the virtual end to our season.

However, a couple of minutes later, with nothing to lose, the team pulled a defender and brought in Jaime Moreno, the League's all-time leading scorer, whose injured knee had kept him out of the starting line-up. The decision to bring in Moreno paid almost immediate dividends, as he soon assisted on a goal by Francis Doe, that waived forward who hadn't scored all year. Doe scored after a pretty cut back helped him elude his defender and get a good shot. After that goal, Fred, who was thought lost for the season due to a hamstring injury, entered the game as United's last allowed substitute, and United's offense was roaring.

Amazingly enough, the go-ahead goal came again at the foot of Doe, and was scored in impressive fashion. The ball was flicked to him by Tino Quaranta, and Doe was able to out-muscle and out-quick last year's Defender of the Year to square up for a shot that he got over the goalie (you can view this goal and the rest of the match highlights here).

United was able to ride out the last part of the match to finish with a win in its last home match of the season. Its next challenge is to finish the season on the road against the best team in the league, the Columbus Crew. A win may be difficult, but at least there's still something for the team to play for.
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Post Script: Starting at halftime, and throughout the second half, I was tracking the Red Sox-Rays game, seeing the deficit grow from 2-0 to 4-0 to 5-0, just glad that at least United had pulled off a win. I got home when it was still 5-0 to find a message from Dad, who is now a Rays fan, having lived in the Tampa area since before the team came into existence. I called him back, and explained where I had been. He wanted my support for the Rays, asking, couldn't I cheer for the underdog? I firmly responded by saying that I root for my team, no matter who they're playing. All the same, I congratulated him for his team, and shortly after I hung up, the deficit had grown to 7-0. I needed to go to bed -- I was exhausted, so after winding down a little more from the United match, turned in, even though I had seen that the Sox had cut the deficit to 7-4. It was only this morning that I learned that the Sox had scored four more runs in the last two innings to pull off the biggest comeback in post-season baseball in nearly 80 years.