Creepiest Mascot Ever

Mr. Red (with the late Marge Schott).

Those soulless eyes, that frozen grimace....yeesh. Can't imagine taking my kid to see this guy. I don't think I could afford the therapy.

Extolling the virtues of craigslist

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, craigslist is maybe the best site on the Internet. Those who do know about it know I'm only slightly exaggerating.

I first heard of craigslist during the 2002 World Series, where it, not eBay, was the hottest market for buying and selling tickets. The concept is simple: in addition to discussion forums and who knows what else, you can sell stuff easily and (usually) for free. Whereas eBay is like an online auction house, craigslist is more like the want ads. Usually you need to call or e-mail the seller to buy something, and the transaction is handled the old-fashioned way: offline.

I use craigslist regularly to attempt to sell Giants tickets, and usually have fair success since a bunch of cheapskates like us out there can't turn down $15 baseball tickets. I sold my car on craigslist. But today I witnessed the awesome power of posting something in the "free" section.

I have been putting off posting a "free" ad for our old washer and dryer. Since I was at it, I offered up our old moving boxes so I could those damn things out of the kitchen. I got up a little late, so I didn't get the ads posted until 11.

Literally 5 minutes later the phone rang.

It didn't stop for more than 10 minutes at a time over the next couple hours. The first guy came and swooped up most of the moving boxes, leaving only a few. That was kind of annoying, since I had wanted him to take all or nothing. But someone called a couple minutes later and he gladly scooped up the remaining boxes.

A nice couple came and hauled away our washer and dryer. They actually wanted just the washer because our dryer was gas, but they called back twenty minutes later and decided to take both so they could get the washer. Such is the power of free.

So by 1, all our stuff was gone. Unfortunately, craigslist's posting server went down, and I couldn't edit the posts to say the stuff had been claimed. People continued to call. We went out for a couple hours and had seven messages when we got back.

So if you have crap you want to get rid of, you don't need to put it in a landfill. There is always someone out there who will haul it off for free.

Must be getting old.

This evening, I was going back and forth between washing dishes and grilling a tri-tip, when I said, "I really don't want to go to work tomorrow."

To which Rhonda said, "Huh? It's Saturday."

Never have I felt so old. I was just about to put out the trash. I think I got thrown off because I worked from home yesterday, and because the Niners were playing, I just assumed it was Sunday. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The house is coming together. I think we made our final IKEA trip of the immediate future (and fastest of all time, parking lot and back in 45 minutes). We had to drive all the way to Emeryville because the EPA (East Palo Alto for all y'all not from these parts) IKEA hasn't had a couple things we need in stock despite frequent trips. Even the website didn't have the table we were looking for, hence the hellish trip up 880 to the East Bay.

We have raided the local Aaron Brothers and our walls are looking a little less bare. I have been nailing and drilling away and I think even in an earthquake some of that stuff will stay up. I picked up some Harman Kardon Soundsticks at Costco (see little pic on the right) for my computer and for the "library" and these things are SCHWEET. They are a little too "look at me" for my taste but they sound spectacular.

(I had a speaker and sub set that held up for about five years until the left speaker shorted out, and they got trashed when we moved. I tried to get some cheapie speakers from Fry's but they were tinny as hell. I figured I would need to spend at least $50 to get any decent sound, the reviews on the speakers I was looking at weren't exactly dazzling, and the amount I was willing to spend escalated beyond common sense.

Oh well, they sound good, and if I wanted to, you can hear them clearly and crisply from the kitchen.)

Well, I'm outta things to say. That's got to be a sign I'm getting old...

Kruegergate

If you are a Giants fan and have not been living in a cave, you've heard about the comments KNBR radio host Larry Krueger made about the Giants' "brain-dead Caribbean hitters hacking at slop nightly" and the firestorm of controversy that has followed. The excrement hit the fan today when Krueger and two other KNBR employees were fired.

I've been listening to KNBR today and a few things about the whole thing are troubling. First off, I'm half-Mexican, and at first I didn't think the comments were that bad. Then I thought about it, and I could see why Giants manager Felipe Alou and the other Latino players were upset. Then I thought about it some more, and I too wanted to see a stiffer punishment for Krueg. A one-week suspension was so light a punishment for so serious an infraction that it gave the impression that what was said wasn't that bad.

There are several thing wrong with what was said. One thing is he laid the blame for the troubles of the Giants on the Latinos. While I've said the Giants need to learn how to take a pitch once in a while and be more selective, I think players since as Lance Niekro and the recently departed Marquis Grissom are as much to blame as Feliz or Cruz. Secondly, I wasn't aware that being stupid is a stereotype Latin players have had to fight against. Once I understood that, I fully understood why Felipe was making such a big deal about this.

What really bothers me is the number of people calling in to say how Felipe overreacted, Felipe should be fired, etc. etc. For one thing, Felipe played back when there was still REAL racism in the game. If anything, he should be commended for fighting for something he believes in. He has taken a lot of guff for blowing the story out of proportion, but other players were also angered. Omar Vizquel compared Krueger to John Rocker. Alou is doing this for himself, but also to stick up for his players. That's part of his job.

If something similar had been said about another racial group (try substituting "Black" for "Caribbean") there wouldn't have been this controversy. Krueger would've been shown the door before you could say, "Jimmy the Greek". I know if something like that was said at Sun, there would be no week-long suspension and no second chance.

This whole situation could've been nipped in the bud if only the initial punishment had been more stringent. If Krueger had been suspended for, say, the remainder of the baseball season, I honestly don't think Felipe would have taken this as far as he did. But because the punishment was so weak, the mounting negative publicity made Krueger's firing a foregone conclusion.

Whoa, I'm beat...

The good ol' computer is finally set up. No more wifi laptop. Now I can finally do my bills.

Being a homeowner has been kicking my ass. The "library" was painted last weekend. What a disaster. Never let any person or website tell you it's an easy DIY job. It was one calamity after another for Rhonda and I. I think we got it looking OK, but it was our first time painting, and it shows.

After the paint was dry I was able to get some BILLY bookcases from IKEA put up. I got a great idea from a magazine to paint the bookcases using the trim paint. Great idea, bad execution. I don't think I sanded the parts I painted well enough (I was exhausted), and then when I put the pieces together, some of the paint scraped off. I tried to touch it up for a few days and it is better, but still not quite the catalog-cover look I was shooting for. Even today, when we were putting the shelves in, little bits of paint were scraping off...I dread what it's going to look like in a few years.

So finally we're getting our immense DVD and book collection out of boxes and onto shelves. I had to shift my attention to the yard. I let one weekend go by without tending to the yard and all of a sudden I had a bigger weed problem than Bobby and Whitney. I pulled a whole 5-gallon bucket of weeds today from the front and back, and used almost a whole bottle of Round-Up getting rid of the pesky bastards cropping up in the driveway and walkways. I'm more convinced than ever that I'll need to let the backyard die and re-sow it...

The house is slowly getting into BBQ-ready shape. As I said several weeks ago, I'll get some pictures up if I ever find my camera.