Been a while.........

I really haven't had a whole lot of time to post of late, but have been accumulating lots to say.

To start with, Aaron is doing very well. Hopefully today he'll be out of his incubator and into a cradle. He's rapidly closing in on 6 lbs. and is off caffeine, so he's coming along well. Please keep on praying for him and all of us.

Well, the Yankees pulled off one of the greatest collapses of all time and THE greatest post-season collapse ever. Now Boston's on a 7-game winning streak and one win away from their first title in 86 years. Somebody had better find out who put the Sominex in the Cardinals' Gatorade and wake them up. They've looked pretty lethargic in the last two games after a very spirited Game 1 tilt.

Memo to Brian Cashman: Kevin Brown and Javier Vazquez are NOT as good as Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte (healthy or hurt). Vazquez had better get himself righted in 2005 or he could wind up being a bust of Whitsonian size.

GREAT Bull Durham moment in Game 6 of the Yankees-Sox series. After Bernie Williams crushed a Bronson Arroyo pitch into the right field seats, Fox replayed Arroyo (a rookie) shaking off veteran catcher Jason Varitek's signs not once, but TWICE. Made me think of the classic scene where Nuke shrugs off Crash twice and the following sequence occurs:

Crash (to hitter): That SOB is shaking me off. Fastball, and when you speak of me, speak nicely.

Crash gives the sign for Nuke's fastball, which the hitter promptly crushes to right. After Crash admonishes the hitter for admiring his shot, he visits Nuke on the mound.

Nuke: Man, he hit that like he knew what I was going to throw to him.

Crash: He did. I told him.

Substitute Varitek for Crash and Arroyo for Nuke and there you go.

Now that the playoffs are (for me) over, it's time to catch up on the mountain of shows I have been taping. I really like the dynamic of CSI:NY, even though I have only seen the first two eps and taped over the 3rd. I have the 4th to watch and will likely watch ep 5 tonight. Gary Sinise is the real deal, almost as believable in his role as Petersen in Vegas and Caruso in Miami. I also appreciate the fact that the tone of NY is as different from its siblings as Miami is from Vegas.

As for Vegas, it appears this year is all about Catherine Willows (played by Marg Helgenberger). Her role has been much larger than Grissom's and I have read that she will be attempting to land the Day Shift supervisor role somewhere along the way this season. The writers have actually been setting this up this season and it makes sense, since the night shift is way overloaded now that Greg is out of the lab. Plus, it appears that Catherine and Warrick might be getting a bit buddy-buddy, which I'm not sold on since I like these shows better when the personal stuff is kept out. Stick to procedure, that's why I watch anyways.

Final TV note. If you haven't yet, check out Medical Investigation on NBC. Excusing the cruddy title and occasional blatant style rips from CSI and ER, this show has gotten consistently better week to week. Neal McDonough is awesome as the lead doctor, I like the supporting cast and, what's best, the causes of the illnesses they are investigating are, more often than not, environmental rather than through human malice. That helps keep things a little more upbeat. I suspect it won't live beyond one season, but it's good to have it around (even if it's a short visit).

Man, I'm so punchy lately. I had a lot of other stuff to cover that I seem to have forgotten. Mental clarity lately is only good between 6AM and 11AM. After that, it steadily and rapidly declines until I'm mental mush by 8PM. Guess I need more sleep and some changes to the 'ol diet. Like any of that'll happen.

Oh well, I guess that's it then. Until we meet again.