...and so it begins

Today is the best and worst day of vacation.

Excitement fills our hearts as we ready for heading to the airport, having Aidan just wave at the TSA gang and then off to Barcelona, but at the same time, 11 total hours on planes, 3 to JFK and then 8 to BCN.

We are loaded for bear with closed, sealed packs of snacks for Aidan and I'm burning some Handy Manny's and Mickey Mouse Clubs to DVD as back-up.

I've made the decision to bring my computer (not the work one) for a few reasons. Mostly to frequently dump and save our pictures (3 cameras, 2 video cams going) and although _I_ have more GB than I need, my two strong women may not and I couldn't bear having them run out while shooting something they want to savor.

It's going to be an absolute blast watching my own parents on their very first ever steps on European soil as well as how many things Aidan wants to touch since he's a very tactile child.

Man, this is so damn cool. We're very fortunate and blessed.

Preparing for a Cruise

So several people I know, go on drastic diets prior to going on a cruise. The plentiful amount of food and drink and the debaucherous behaviors that one can get away with cannot be avoided.

My parents have been trying to lose weight knowing that the quantity of quality of food will be tempting and it becomes fruitless to refuse.

Here's what I've done prior to the cruise:

I bought a bunch of shirts that are a size larger. Not only have I received several compliments over the last week asking if I've lost weight, but I'm prepared for when I do gain weight on the cruise so that my belly doesn't hang out from the shirts when I return.

Sure, it's not the healthiest of behaviors, but I'm not torturing myself prior to vacation AND I'm getting wonderful compliments. Nothing like an ego boost, eh?

I can't wait for the midnight buffet and the pizza bar. (nods to Neil Sutherland)

Happy Birthday Peter Edward Rose!

Today is Pete Rose's 68th Birthday. Pete was one of my childhood heroes.

He and Hank Aaron were the only visiting players I ever cheered for (who hadn't previously played for the Cubs) at Wrigley when everyone else was booing (Well, no one booed Hank in the 70's). I wore number 14 as a child playing Little League, played 3rd and 1st bases and had a similar crouched, chubby-like hitting stance.

I've been listening again, to the writhing and wailing about whether or not Pettite, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire, Bonds, Conseco, etc should ever be considered for the Hall of Fame and I really just puke at it all.

As has been said countless times before, but will continue to be ignored by the Commissioner's office, using "not in the best interest of baseball" as an argument to keep someone out of the Hall of Fame loses all credibility when:

• Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and others were notorious womanizers, alcohol abusers and gamblers
• The magic list from 2003 is not going to be made public which means that all baseball stats from that season (and likely those before and after) will be put into question
  
• Baseball itself refused to address the steroids issue until being called before Congress and
  
• the number of times drug users have been allowed back in the league is more than words in this post

What Pete did is wrong according to the rules, but I'm amazed at how the league subjectively hands out "forgiveness" for legal and illegal transgressions but will stand firm on the whole Pete Rose issue.

He's clearly paid his dues with jail time for tax evasion, the fact that he basically can't enter any baseball stadiums continues to hinder his ability to make money and yet, his record, without steroids still stands.

So Happy Birthday Pete. I hope that before you die, you get what you deserve by being inducted into the Hall of Fame. But then again, the Veterans committee continues to prolong the agony of Ron Santo in spite of all of the information they've been provided that shows his stats are as strong as anyone elses for the time including Brooks Robinson.

Maybe you're better off NOT being there. Seems like they are a bunch of arrogant assholes.