Notes, Quotes, and Anything That Floats

Now I'm starting to believe that Mother Nature is yanking my chain. Not even midway through August, and with the first high school football game still fifteen days away, temperatures have no business being in the 60s in the middle of the afternoon. This is especially true since I'm about 120 miles away from Troy Memorial Stadium and can't reasonably go walk around the place for even a hint of relief.

In my essay yesterday about the BGSU basketball program, I forgot to mention that Kevin Netter, a senior center on last year's team, has signed a contract to play professionally in Finland. Kevin had all the potential in the world to be a star in college, but never quite made it. Hopefully he'll be able to do so as he enters his career. Good luck, Kevin.

I woke up with a pretty severe headache this morning, so I took half the day off. It also didn't help that I overslept. I'm supposed to be here by 8:00; I woke up at 8:15. The alarm was still set when I finally did wake up, but I have no recollection of it going off at any point. I have no idea what happened. Since I took the morning off, I just went back to sleep until about 10:45. That was nice. I'm exceptionally happy to report that my headache was gone at that point, and so I'm now at work.

I hate it when a traffic light on a main street turns red when no one is waiting on the cross street. Why does this happen? Can we get some legislation against this?

I went over to McComas's place last night to play some PlayStation football. What an epic game we played. I ended up beating him 31-28 in overtime. He played with the all-time Oklahoma State team (featuring Barry Sanders at tailback) and I played with all-time Syracuse (featuring Jim Brown at tailback, Donovan McNabb at quarterback, and Qadry Ismael at receiver). Being able to play with some great players and teams of the past is an awesome feature of this game.

Tonight McComas and maybe his girlfriend Charissa are coming over to my place to watch some preseason football. The Atlanta Falcons are playing the Baltimore Ravens on ESPN. McComas and I are both big fans of Michael Vick, Atlanta's quarterback. Our main interest in this game, though, is that it will be the first NFL game for former BGSU quarterback Josh Harris. Harris is a rookie with the Ravens, and he's currently the third quarterback on their depth chart, behind Kyle Boller and Kordell Stewart. Since this is a preseason game, Josh should get some decent playing time. I hope he does well.

I hate to say it, but it isn't exactly a surprise that Ken Griffey Jr. is out for the season again for the Reds, this time with a torn hamstring. He's been snakebitten by injuries essentially from the moment he arrived in Cincinnati from Seattle, which is tragic since he truly was one of the game's greatest players. Hopefully the time off will allow him to recover and return to some semblance of his old form next season. The only good thing about this is that it ensures that Wily Mo Peña will continue to get playing time even when (or if) Austin Kearns returns to the lineup.