Day 200

I didn't even realize that I had made it to 200 posts until I went back to see what day I should title this entry. Pretty amazing huh? You know none of you thought I would make it this far. let alone 50 posts. I will keep doing it as long as I continue to enjoy it. Which I still do. I love venting on all kinds of topics and reporting back on my life to you all - especially now that I am no longer in Chicago where 90% of my friends are. So with that, here is #200.

Tuesday as you all know was Halloween. Now I have never been a big Halloween fan. I wrote about this last year. But this year was going to be different. This was our first Halloween in suburbia as home owners. For those of you that aren't familiar, we live in a development that has a ton of kids and is a very popular spot for trick or treating. As a kid, I trick or treated here a few times. We were told by the neighbors to expect a big crowd, so we loaded up on candy. From about 6:15-8:30 we had a constant flow of kids. Randomly, my cousin Debbie's son Brian showed up at my door. I'd say half the kids looked too old to be trick or treating and didn't have costumes. I made the conscious decision to give candy to everyone and not skimp, for the sole fact of ensuring the safety of my house from eggs and shaving cream. At one point, I looked out the window and on the street in front of our house, I'd say 40 high school kids had congregated. Some younger kids came to the door and I asked them what was going on out there. One said "It smells really bad. They are just standing there and lighting candy on fire." That lasted about 15 minutes and then cops drove by and they dispersed. I bet O saw 6-7 cop cars drive by throughout the night. But in this neighborhood, other than high school football Friday nights, there isn't much for cops to do. Overall, we got out unscathed with less left-over candy than I thought we'd have.

The picture above is of my niece Reese and Nephew Jace as the Flower and the Knight. I'd like to tell you that I got those directly from the children's mother, but in true immature fashion, that woman who wonders why she is an ex-wife didn't add me or my mom to the email list. 50 other people, including my Aunt were on there, just not mom or me. MD had to forward them on to us. Nice huh? Well her shit list's top two names are Patti and Todd. We are in good company.

Props out the city of Cleveland and its city hall offices. I am off to Canada again next week for work. Starting January 1, to get into Canada you must have a passport. A birth certificate, which is allowed now, will no longer work. I applied for a passport a couple of months ago and in doing so, they take your birth certificate. So I had to go down to city hall and get a replacement. Being in downtown Cleveland is so funny. There are minimal people on the streets. I actually got a metered spot right in front of city hall no problem. Went into the office and there was a line probably 50 deep. It moved so swiftly, had great signage, and took only 10 minutes total. Not only that, but everyone was so nice. We may be the poorest big city in the country, but at least the people are nice.

In my never ending quest to tell everyone that I am going to get in shape before the baby is born, we are going to go back to an old friend, the tennis court, for some help. Mom and I are playing tennis later today. We will see how that goes. Last time I played was in Florida last February with mom. I had a great time and told her I'd like to get back into it. I'm hoping today is a spring board to that. Believe it or not, I was once a pretty good tennis player before I burned out Junior year in high school. We will see how the old Jokewood indoor courts are.

I actually watched an entire regular season NBA game last night for the first time in years as the Cavaliers won their home opener against Washington 97-94. I have to admit, it was a very exciting game. But its all about Lebron. Take him off the team and I don't think I could watch as intently unless I was there. A few quick Cavs thoughts (non-hoops fan, you can skip this):

• If Larry Hughes plays this well all year, the Cavaliers will be a serious force. He'll never shoot this well again though.
• Maybe it was the matchup, but the big Z, Zydrunas Illgauskas, looked exactly as he did in the playoffs last year. Slow and old. The Wizards run too much for him to be any sort of factor. Lets hope it was just a matchup problem and not the fast deterioration of his game and body.
• Damon Jones is terrible. He should thank Shaquille O'Neal everyday for being on his team for one year and allowing him all of the open looks he knocked down. That is how he rooked Danny Ferry into signing him to a 4 year deal. If he isn't knocking down shots (2-10 last night), he is completely worthless. He can't dribble, plays zero defense, and stands around on the offensive end doing nothing.
• Its so nice to have Lebron on our side. He is just incredible to watch.

The clown prince of VH-1, Flavor Flav, is going to be a father....again. Flav, the self-proclaimed Public Enemy "hype man," has fathered his SEVENTH child, with yet another "baby-momma," due in January. The best part is when asked if he would marry the woman, whom Flav described only as a "shorty in Las Vegas," Flav said, "I'm not marrying anybody--I'm too young to die." I was listening to Howard Stern this morning, and sidekick Artie Lange brought up a good point. He said "if you want proof that there is no God, look at all of the well off married couples who could provide a child with a loving home and everything they would want, and have to go through every single method of trying to have a child. Invetro Fertilization, shots, therapy, everything. Yet they cannot have a child and this guy is on number 7?" I couldn't agree more. Its a crazy world we live in.

I have to weigh in on the John Kerry "botched joke." Lets get it out of the way first - John Kerry is a moron. Any guy who couldn't defeat George Bush when pretty much half of the country hated him, doesn't deserve this much attention again. But he continues to put himself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. That being said, he botched a joke targeted at President Bush and not at the soldiers in Iraq. This guy wouldn't be that stupid as to criticize people going off to war. He fought in Vietnam. He gets it. The Republican party has predictably jumped all over this and Bush is now weighing in. He was quoted as saying that John Kerry owes every service member an apology. That may be the case, but to me, Kerry butchered this by not coming right back, apologizing right away and saying, yes, I screwed up a joke, and I apologize, but President Bush is the one who should apologize for misleading this country and getting us into a war that is looking like a bottomless pit. The desperate Republican party may have gotten a shot in the arm at the best possible time for them, a few days before an election day that could very well overturn power in the senate to the Democrats.

Song of the Day: "Beautiful Disaster" by 311