Quickrete, Purple Martins, and Clover

Because blogs can be such empty intellectual calories, why not let you loyal readers know about three things that are about as significant as a pimple on Rosie's ass?

So here we go...

The Good!

Hey, I can't believe it! My $96 (plus shipping) purple martin house has attracted some tenants! Cute little buggers, I must say. They buzz around like freakin' bats! I was very skeptical that I would get any of them to find this lovely birdie condo just 2.5 months after I threw it up there, but lo and behold!




Then you had my ongoing quickrete drama with Bob and Brian. Who knew that mixing up some bags of quickcrete would be so complicated, but I suppose you have to screw it up a few times first, before you get the hang of it. Here's my crude effort on the tee pad. Looks like a grey rice krispy treat, no? This is what happens when you are too cheap to buy a trowel, don't use the proper amount of bags for a full 2 or 4 inch thick slab, and spend only 5 minutes running a 2x4 over it to level. Still, with the range mat on top, it'll be jiffy spiffy for my needs. Next tee box, I promise to do better.



Now, to the bane of my lawn existence! Freaking white clover! I know that I can attack this crap with a post-emergent (the pre-emergent weed n' feed did nothing). And I plan to do just that. I also know that clover helps put nitrogen INTO the soil - a concept that sorta threw me for a loop, but the more I read about it the more I "get it." I also think that a quick hot spell here in the DC area caused the clover to really POP when a more gradual warm up would have allowed more of my grass to wake up and thrive.

Now, I'm off to Pinehurst for the annual golf trip. I plan to bring the ol' digicam. Let's hope some incriminating photos to follow!

The Audacity of Glass

How long is it until Barry decides to just ditch the prompter, relies on notecards, and maybe shortens his blowhardery just a bit?

That, and some practice.

Because the teleprompter king keeps tripping over his transparently projected words.

Here's the latest....



But remember, he's brilliant. And Bush was a moron. Okay. Let's not lose sight of that.

I mean, it's not like when Bush - that Texas bumpkin! - decided to choke the air with greenhouse gasses, use military resources on a photo op, and scare the living shit out of 8 million people in New York City by buzzing the still rebuilding World Trade Center site with a needless fly-by of an empty Air Force One!

Oh, wait a minute. That wasn't Bush.... never mind.

But hey, maybe that teleprompter will be an inspiration to all of us in America. We too can be anything we want, as long as the words are written for us, and projected 5 feet in front of our face!

Meanwhile, I had no idea how creatively funny the photoshop-osphere could be!











Bush. That idiot.

The NFL's New $41 Million Man

Skip Oliva is a friend/enemy whom I've made angry, entertained, broken up with, got back together with, and basically been round and round on.

Skip used to live here in Washington D.C. and created his own think tank regarding the government abuses of anti-trust laws and regulations.

He's been fascinating to read/listen to, because he will actually walk all the way down the path of "what would really happen if Utah's anti-trust complaint about the BCS actually got rolling."

(Note: It's not a pretty path, but I'll save that for later someday.)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
TO: Czabe FROM: Skip Oliva RE: Stafford Deal I know how much you enjoy random stats, so here's a graf from an article I posted about Matthew Stafford's new contract: "Of the 32 players who started the majority of the 2008 season at the quarterback position, the mean draft position was 90 and the median 62. (These averages are actually generous, since three starters went un-drafted, so for purposes of this analysis I assigned them one spot below the last player selected.) As for quarterbacks selected in the draft's first round, the recent evidence suggests at least a 50% failure rate. Taking the 16 quarterbacks selected between 2002 and 2006 - that is, quarterbacks with three full playing seasons since the NFL expanded to 32 teams - only eight are still with the team that selected them, and only seven are considered starters today. (And two of these seven may lose their starting jobs before the season begins.)" Skip

REACT: Which proves that for all of he so called "sophistication" of the NFL talent evaluation process (endless camps, workouts, 40 yard dash times, film sessions, etc.) teams are still compelled by the shiny object in the window. Quarterback. Is it the single most important position on the field? Probably, but there's a debate that can be had about that. (another day...) Getting to your franchise QB however, is most often NOT as simple as picking him out of college, and plunking him into your starting lineup.