Barb by Proxy

Background Noise:Gavin Rossdale
Random Thought:This lady hasn't got anything on me.
Mood:Back to the Airport...

Many a day ago, a coworker inquired exactly how many pairs of shoes I had. My guess was 100-ish, I'd been there at one point but have purged as I've moved. So I began an experiment to see how many days I could go to work and wear a different pair of shoes. It turns out that the number may be closer to 150...

Which happened today, and hree are the very special Carlos Santana shoes that made the cut for Day 100:



And the preceeding 99 days:

Background Noise:The St. Louis office hard at work
Random Thought:Could a day spent at the Michigan v. Michigan State football game and then the Red Wings v. Blackhawks be the best day ever?
Mood: Ready to go home

Greetings from St. Louis, my home away from home. Or so it feels like. It's sad when the sales people at the Shoe Stop have just now realized that you don't live in St. Louis, you just visit enough to be a frequent shopper.

Anyway, prior to jetting to STL yesterday morning (sans tornado-induced blackouts, as was the case 2 weeks ago), I managed to drag my tired self to the CSO Wednesday night. Happily, John Williams and Yo-Yo Ma made it all worthwile, as the former conducted all of his own works and YYM accompanied him for the second half as they ran through 6 pieces from Memiors of a Geisha.




The evening also included pieces from Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind (awesomely set against a giant screen showing clips from the movie), Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and ET (joyously amazing without the film to muck it up). The other highlight was the performance of the JW-composed Olympic Fanfare, which NBC butchers by talking over during all of their broadcasts. It's amazing how much better it sounds when performed live by an 80-piece symphony orchestra than when pushed to background by Bob Costas' inane blather. And the olympic images projected on giant screen were equally impressive. Olympic swimmers at 100 feet? Awesome.

Background Noise:Pictures of You
Random Thought:Flying to St. Louis and back in a day is tiring.
Mood:Happy that Nook is doing much better.

So I watched the ESPYs on Sunday, and was highly entertained. JT did a grand job of emceeing, Will Ferrell accepting for Tiger Woods was all things hilarious, and the winner of Best Moment, Great Sportsmanship, brought tears to my eyes.

However. There was a glaring hole where some hockey noms should have been. I get that the fans vote, and that makes it nifty, if also a little bit dependant on the fans proclivity to vote. Now, I have lots of love for a lot of the winners, and wouldn’t necessarily have voted hockey across the board, but it would have been nice if ESPN had raised the visibility of the sport a little by at least including them in the nominations. Three nominations? Out of 18 categories (Ignoring of course the Best of the NHL/MLB/NBA, etc categories)? Hockey didn’t even get a spoof during Justin’s animated “I love sports” song. By my calculations, this was the nomination breakdown:

Basketball—22
Football—13
Baseball—10
Tennis—5
Car Racing--5
Golf—4
Soccer—4
HOCKEY—3
Swimming—2
Track & Field—2
Wrestling—1
Horse Racing—1
Skiing—1
Field Hockey—1

Honestly? You couldn’t find a single hockey player to nominate in any of the following:

Best Male Athlete--How about Alexander Ovechkin, who in his 3rd season led the NHL with 65 goals and 112 points to capture the Maurice "Rocket" Richard and Art Ross Trophies, the Lester B. Pearson Award as the top player voted by the NHLPA and the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's MVP. The first player to win all 4 in a year, ever.

Best Moment--Really? Nothing to be nominated against Danica Patrick actually winning? Maybe the Winter Classic, or Richard Zednik’s recovery.

Best Coach--Gee, Mike Babcock, anyone? They managed to nominate the head coach of the Championship team from the NBA, MLB and NFL.

Best Game--I nominate the 5th longest playoff game in playoff history that sent the Stanley cup finals into a game 6.

Best Breakthrough Athlete Would it be a stretch to nominate the Calder winner for best rookie of the year? Patrick Kane helped the Hawks get thisclose to the playoffs.

Best Male College Athlet--No BC Player? Eleven of their starters for next year were drafted by the NHL. Ben Smith scored 50 points in 50 games enroute to BC’s repeat championship.

Best Male International Athlete--Dude—half the sport is international, you couldn't pick one? What about Nicklas Lidstrom, the first European to captain a Stanley Cup team?


These are just my suggestions, and even if you thought they wouldn't win, couldn't you at least put some nominations up there?

Background Noise:
Random Thought:All those times I was re-routed around something or couldn't go somewhere and was kept awake by lights and bangs was totally worth it.
Mood:In love

It should come as a suprise to no one that I was one of those crazies in line 2 hours early to get a good seat to a midnight IMAX showing of The Dark Knight.
And it was so incredibly worth it. If you can, get yourself to a huge screen and see it. The Dark Knight is big and shiny, and meant to be see in IMAX. Give Chris Nolan some credit for taking the whole thing so seriously and go, because not only was it visually fantastic, but the story was so rich that had you never heard of Batman you probably wouldn't think "Gee, a comic book movie."

Also, Heath Ledger was phenomenal. He makes Jack's Joker look like a birthday party clown.

And, incase you have zero interest in a fantastic storyline, awesome stunts and effects (actually performed on the streets of Chicago) or the fact that Maggie Gyllenhaal makes you forget that there was ever a woody, line-lumbering Katie Holmes, you can go for this:



Except in the movie it manages to be even hotter, as it is ridden by Christian Bale in sexy-ass jeans and a motorcycle jacket. Which I looked for a picture of, but couldn't find. You'll just need to see for yourself.

Background Noise:
Random Thought:Going home. Also, in love with Christian Bale as John Conner in the new Terminator movie.
Mood:See above.

Just a photo update on the needy child:

Background Noise:Mamma Mia
Random Thought:Actually, I love all parades
Mood:Tired

Here's a quick summary of my 4th of July, in case you missed it:



Yes, my weekend consisted mostly of patriotically decorated pontoon boats making a slow processional around Higgins Lake and drinking. Also, a fairly uninteresting family reunion and a fantastically entertaining marathon game of Scene It for Xbox (which rules--although it would rule harder if made by Wii) and super good times with my cousins.

Background Noise:
Random Thought:I haven't been to an outdoor hockey game in a very long time...
Mood:Yeay!

There have been many things I've been meaning to post over the past few days, and have actually been trying to remember to do so. But most of them are me ranting or randomness. So here's some really great news:

The Red Wings and the Blackhawks, New Years Day, at Wrigley.
Outdoor Classic 2009.



Picture that, but in the friendly confines of Wrigley Stadium. With a possiblity of snow. I can't wait.

Background Noise:New Slang
Random Thought:Thanks reddit
Mood:Worried about Nook

I stumbled upon Wonkette this morning by way to a link to a link to a link. Following the story of yet another closeted raging homophobic politician, I couldn't help but me amused byAnyway, her commentary is pretty spot on, if a little harsh. Then again, it's sometimes what my brain thinks before I remember that I'm working on my tact.

I esecially like the Top Ten signs of the apocolypse,



thanks to this attention-grabbing headline: Foreclosed Country of Violent Dope-Addict Fatsos Also On Fire (Or Under Water).

Background Noise:
Random Thought:
Mood:Worried like an anxious pet parent

Now these are just cool.

Background Noise:
Random Thought:Wow, cat's get really yellow
Mood:Sad

In fairly sad news, I took my cat to the vet yesterday because he's been acting lethargic for the past two days.




It turns out that Nook has liver disease, and he has to stay at the vet's for 5 days. It was a heartbreaking to leave him there, looking so sad and small, but my vet team is very nice and said that he should recover after a few days of B vitamins, kitty-peptid and lots of fluids. But they are keeping him so that they can run tests and rule out any other problems that he might have that are eithe causing the liver disease or being masked by it. Floyd seems very confused as to where his buddy went, and I'm a little taken aback by how much a vet stay costs ($1600), but I just cuold look at poor Nook with his yellow skin (when the liver stops functionining correctly it doesn't process all of the amino acids in his body and causes jaundice) and say no.

In other sad news, the old Tiger Stadium is being demolished. Not that it was one of the classiest of stadiums, or that it was in a great area to go and hang out, but Tiger Stadium was a mainstay of the Detroit area and one of the last old ballparks. Here's a fond farewell to you, Tiger Stadium.