Ode to Rick Ankiel*

How do I love thee, yon batter
I shall enumerate:
First you pitched for us
And while you had the goods
Your arm, it was wild.
Then we sent you away
Not for eternity,
But to reconsider.
You returned a changed man.
And now your arm,
We don't mind it.
It guides your bat
And sends the ball
Over the outfield wall.

*In celebration of the 6th inning, grand-slam home run Ankiel drove out tonight against the Reds, giving St. Louis a 7-4 lead. Ankiel was a phenomenal pitcher as a rookie in 2000, but he could never control his arm. He retired as a pitcher in 2005 and has been working as an outfielder ever since. He's back in the big leagues, seemingly healthy, and just what we need in the home stretch. The Cards, after listless play all season, are now just 2.5 games back of the Cubs heading into September. We'll need to win the division to get to the playoffs; I think we're too crappy to hope for a wild card slot.

links for 2007-08-31

• At I.B.M., a Vacation Anytime, or Maybe None - New York Times
  IBM no longer tracks vacation time, or even whether employees are in the office at all.
  (tags: vacation HR policy IBM 2007)

Welcome to a new blogger

AKA my dad is so funny

Y'all, back at the beginning of the summer, I set up a blog for my dad, at his request. I also set up one for Nashville Sister, but so far, she's not using it. Cross your fingers....she will be a fabulous, funny blogger.

At any rate, my dad looks to be serious about this blogging thing. But I'm worried he's getting the wrong idea about blogging.

In his first post, he considered whether it was possible to blog without attending blogger conventions and meetups. Now, he's cracking on my topics. (See the comments.)

Daddy, let me assure you, it's practically impossible to blog wrong. And while blogger meetups can be fun, they aren't required. I think many of you out there will enjoy reading Pookie's Ponderings. I do. Just don't get his politics mixed up with mine. ;)

links for 2007-08-26

• Micro Persuasion: Identity Through Online Lifestreams
  (tags: lifestream)

We are thinking of going to the movies

But only because it's 79 degrees and rising here in the house.

They say this is the last day of 100+ temperatures. I sure hope so! Silly me, taking two days off when it's too hot to do anything outside.

On the plus side, everyone in the house has gotten a haircut in the past two days. We're all very stylish now.

links for 2007-08-23

• Newbies Guide to Twitter : [chrisbrogan.com]
• liquidicity » Reference for EVERY Character Key on a Mac

Dragon Boat Racing - This Weekend!

So you may remember that I enrolled in boot camp earlier this summer. Julia Ledbetter runs a great fitness program at her gym, The Body Shop. I highly recommend it, and as soon as my schedule permits, I'll be back for another camp.

Julia and her husband Levi are not just promoting fitness in the gym, though. They pulled together a team for this weekend's Dragon Boat Festival. It's a charity race benefiting the Cumberland River Compact and the Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association.

Here's the Body Shop team practicing this week in the Cumberland River, right in front of LP Field. I'm not in the picture or on the team, but I'm planning to head for the riverfront this Saturday morning to cheer them on!

It's gotta be a typo

Just look at the weather forecast for next Thursday and Friday here in Nashville:

I don't believe it. Do you??

Meanwhile, I'm headed out to grab a sandwich. I'll be adding to the temperature of the swamp we currently live in, since it's too damn hot to walk a few blocks to get a sandwich [at least, if I expect to return to my office this afternoon, where other people will kind of expect me to be presentable].

Hey, Hustler alums

Oh, my. Just imagine the search traffic this post will inspire.

If you're a Vanderbilt Hustler alum -- graduating any year from 2007 backward, and you haven't heard about the Hustler reunion this fall during Vandy Homecoming, please get in touch with me and I'll share the details.

They're sending written invitations, but if you aren't flagged as a former Tunnel Rat in the alumni database, they don't know to send you one.

lcreekmo [at] gmail.com

Theory of cooking

I have known this for a long time about myself, but sometimes a long-known, but well hidden, truth comes to your face, and you must acknowledge it.

I love to cook. It's one of the things that makes me happiest in the world. But I absolutely, 100 percent, have to be inspired. I bet I really cook about twice a week. Now, I make food every day. We eat dinner at home almost every night, breakfast every morning and I make one or two lunches most days. [The 2yo eats school lunch, bless his heart.]

But cooking? That's rare.

Most meals at my house go like this:
Oh dear. It's time to eat again. The children are whiny. They need food. Surely we have food. Damn, no leftovers. Umm. Look! We have beans! There is rice! Look! There's cauliflower!! It's a vegetable!

Well, you get the picture. We mostly eat food that's good for us, but there's not a ton of pre-planning involved. Yet on other nights, and lots on the weekends, I'll start cooking, almost without thinking about it, and one meal will lead to another.

This weekend I was in the grocery and absently bought some celery. Celery, to me, is like onions or potatoes are to most people. I'm always sorry when I don't have it on hand. I will inevitably need it. Of course, I've probably thrown out more celery than any other food, period. I'll buy it and use a rib or two, or not any, sometimes, and three weeks later have to throw the whole thing out, before it turns all the way to goo in the crisper.

This time, I bought it, and had barely gotten in the door before I started making cream of celery soup. I didn't really put any thought into it. I just started cooking and that was what I made.

I tried hard to get four different people to eat some over the course of the weekend, but apparently the rest of the world is not made up of big celery fans. I ate the entire stalk of celery over about three meals this weekend. It was fabulous.

There was also a tomato pie, a chocolate chess pie and some cornbread thrown in there. I just got going and couldn't stop.

I wish I knew how to turn this on. [I obviously don't know how to turn it off, either.] Lots of times I'd like to be eating some nice, homemade meal, but I can't get to Go.