Good Things, Bad Things

Yesterday was shaping up to be an awesome day. At work, I had a good review and received a raise, and beyond that I had a busy day and the time went pretty quickly. When I got home, I found that my iPod had indeed arrived, at long last. I opened it up and plugged it into the laptop so it could update, and then I went to the gym. I had a good workout and then came back home, and that's when things came back down to Earth.

First off, my iPod still won't work. It's been sent out for repair twice, and I've been without it for nearly two full months. It's doing exactly the same thing it's been doing the whole time--I plug it in, and iTunes says it's updating, but when it says it's finished, there are no songs on the iPod. I'm totally pissed off at this point. I think Brandi is going to take it back to the store this time, since she's the one who actually bought it and paid extra for the extended protection plan. If they won't replace the iPod, she's going to try to get back the money she spent on the protection plan. Then we can send it back to Apple (since it's still under the basic one-year warranty as well) and have done with it. That has turned out to be a much better option: Brandi had some trouble with her iPod recently, and so contacted Apple. They sent her a box in which to ship it back to them, and within three days they sent her a brand-new iPod. That's a lot more satisfactory than the crap I've been going through with this thing.

So while I was waiting for my iPod to not update, I was doing some casual web surfing and learned that the Cincinnati Reds traded first baseman Sean Casey to Pittsburgh for left-handed pitcher Dave Williams. Now, granted, the Reds need pitching help badly. I'm just not sure that trading one of their best and most popular players for a pitcher with a losing record and a history of arm problems was the best move they could have made. Who the hell is Dave Williams? Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa was quoted as saying he's the best left-handed pitcher in the league, but I don't buy it. If so, why the losing record? And why weren't the Cardinals trying to get this guy? I think the Reds could have gotten something better in return if they absolutely had their heart set on trading Casey, which they probably did. It will allow them to clear up their crowded outfield situation by moving Adam Dunn to first base full-time and allowing Austin Kearns and Wily Mo Peña to start in right and left field, respectively. Still, I think the situation would have been better solved by trading Kearns, who reportedly has a ton of potential but has shown next to none of it in his Major League career thus far. That potential, though, means that they likely could have gotten more for him than they could have and did for Casey. I think that would been the better option because Casey is just a more valuable player for the Reds, both on and off the field. I'm upset because Casey is one of my favorite players and I hate to see him move on, especially since the Reds got so little in return. I'm ready to give the new guy a chance, and hopefully he'll turn out to be a great addition. He'll have to be pretty phenomenal, though, to come close to equalling the contributions that Casey made to the club.