Last Post

This is the last post; this blog is done.

We hit the peak a long time ago, and it's been a steady decline ever since. As of now, I have no desire to keep writing and very few ideas.

So I just thought I'd officially close it down, as there's no reason for you to keep checking back if I'm not going to keep writing.

Thanks for reading.

Memorial Day Weekend - Eating

I went to visit my friend Tim in South Carolina over the long weekend. This was my sixth time to visit him: three times while he lived near Indianapolis and now three times in South Carolina. Of those trips, I've seen two Indy 500's, one Brickyard 400, and this would be my third Coca-Cola 600.

Well, it rained all weekend, and that ruined the racing. So there's no real need to discuss the particulars of the NASCAR drivers' inability to drive around in circles in the rain. I might as well discuss some of the fine foods I had over the weekend. Please keep in mind, this is not a comprehensive list, just the highlights:

Friday (DFW Airport)

• KFC chicken tenders - pretty good, but as soon as I sat down, I noticed the Auntie Anne's pretzel dog, and I seriously considered getting one of those as well.

Saturday (downtown Charlotte):

• 1 polish sausage sandwich - excellent
• 1 deep-fried twinkie - I've always wanted to have one. But it was quite disappointing. I just don't see the point of having fried dough surround something that is already so obviously perfect. And what made this even more disappointing is that right after I finished this and couldn't possibly eat anymore, we saw a couple of guys walk by eating chocolate-covered frozen cheesecake on a stick. That looked like one of the best desserts ever, and I didn't get any.

Sunday (Lowe's Motor Speedway):

• 1 giant turkey leg - pretty good. I've always wanted one of these as well. It wasn't anything special, but I'm glad I had it.
• 1 Dove bar - I really needed some ice cream

Monday (Lowe's Motor Speedway)

• 2 slices of Domino's pizza - you just can't go wrong with this choice

That's really about it. I suppose it could have been worse. However, on my flight home, I started feeling sick, and now I have a sore throat and a cold. So what's that old saying: "Feed a fever, starve a cold." Or is it: "Feed a cold, starve a fever." Or maybe it's "Feed a cold, feed a fever." Either way, I was supposed to be on a diet and exercising once I got home. But now that I'm oh so slightly under the weather, I feel I should continue eating so as to improve both my physical and mental health.

Laundry Mishaps

We usually do laundry on the weekend, every two weeks. However, because I was going to be gone over the Memorial Day weekend, and because Kristin would have people over, I told her that I'd do half of it (the first two loads) on Wednesday (a week ago today), and the other two loads on Thursday. Well, things did not go exactly according to plan.

On my first night of solo laundry, I washed and then dried a sweater of Kristin's that she did not want dried. I shrunk it. She had worn it only once, and it was ruined by my poor laundering skills.

On the second night of laundry, I had to wash the sheets. Well, all the sheets wouldn't fit into one machine, so I divvied them up. That meant I had to get some other stuff into each of the two machines. And since most of what I had left were Kristin's jeans , I threw a few pairs of jeans into each machine. Well, one of the jeans was brand new, and it made our bed sheets a very light blue.

So, two nights of laundry, two large mistakes. I think the lesson here is that I'm an idiot and that I cannot be trusted with simple household chores.

Also, there are two final points to make:

• The blue-ness of the sheets isn't really a big deal, because a) no one ever sees them, and b) even when you do see them, the blue-ness is only really visible in the right light and in comparison to the pillow cases, which luckily made their way into the other washing machine.
  
• The offending pair of jeans which caused this blue-ness was Kristin's brand new pair from the Blue Jeans Bar, which she got because she got a gift certificate after winning her NCAA tournament pool. So this is another example of financial karma, which I talked about many many posts ago.

Kristin's Reign of Terror

Last night, we went out to the local bar to celebrate the birthday of one of Kristin's co-workers. We went to Ma'Kai, in Santa Monica, right next to the pier. It's a cool place. We had a few drinks. However, the plan was that a bunch of people would be heading three doors down near the end of the night to Joe's Pizza, which is a Santa Monica institution. Kristin has never let me have Joe's.

Anyway, last night, it was needed, desperately. It was late; I had had a couple drinks; and I was starving. The thought of a greasy, pepperoni-laden slice (or two) of pizza was something I could not get out of mind. Unfortunately, as we left, Kristin made me walk right past it, in agony.

I would have disobeyed her orders to forego the pizza, but I would have gotten the stare of death as well as some comment, like "Really?" or "You do what you have to do" in some completely disappointed and nasty tone.

I guess I need to send Kristin out of town before I can finally go to Joe's Pizza. If any of Kristin's friends want to invite her to go visit them sometime soon, please go ahead.

Banana Republic Strikes Back

A couple months ago, I wrote about Kristin's gambling habit. I made some defamatory remarks about Banana Republic, basically being no better than a casino feeding an addiction. Well, Banana Republic has bested me yet again. They invited Kristin to an "exclusive" party for being a deluxe card member. Basically, because she spends too much money there, they tricked her into believing that she was invited to some exclusive party, where she could spend even more money. So on Thursday, she attended this party, where they had a DJ, free wine and appetizers, and everything was 40% off. She came home with a bunch of stuff.

I told her that she wasted a lot of money; she claimed that she had gotten so many good deals.

Softball Season Ends

Kristin is tired of the softball stories. So in its place is a vast amount of nothingness.

Condo Negotiations Revisited

We did not win our auction to buy the condo on 6th street in Santa Monica. We found this out on Friday. So with our down-payment just burning a hole in our pocket, we went out for a nice dinner. It was good.

Negotiating Tactics

Kristin and I have been considering buying a home in Santa Monica. We've been looking at condos for the last few months and have recently gotten serious. So we made an offer on one condo. It's a short sale, and that always take a lot of time to get a response. Well, last night, we finally heard back, and the banks decided to counter.

Their counter was to ask us to submit our best and final offer. I guess the issue is that there are four other bidders. So even though we offered the full asking price, we're now involved in an auction. Unfortunately, I know only one negotiating tactic, and it doesn't work well in an auction environment. That tactic is "the walk away": you get the other side emotionally involved, but you remain unmotivated. Then, when everyone seems close to a deal, you threaten to "just walk away," just as Kelly Clarkson mentioned in her song. Unfortunately, we're competing against four other bidders, so that's not likely to work here. It looks like we'll raise our offer price by $6k, and that's it. Either we win, or we lose.

Negotiating is not fun when you're flying blind as we are, but that's all we can do right now.

Stuff That's Going On

As you can tell, blogging has been slow as of late. I've run out of ideas and motivation. I still have plenty of time to be blogging, I've just had nothing to say. This weekend, someone mentioned to me that I've probably come to realize that my life is just as boring as everyone else's. No, that's exactly the wrong conclusion, since I've always known that my life is boring. It's just that I managed to spruce things up in the blog through various rants that have no real meaning or importance. Anyway, I'd had thoughts about letting the blog die out, but I thought I'd give it another go and try to keep this thing alive for a while longer, and then reassess at some point in the future.

So let's discuss some issues in the Pagano household:

Softball: Since I haven't written lately, I will update you and let you know that last week, we lost another 1-run game, to fall to 3-5 on the season. Last night, therefore, was our ninth game, and it was our finest performance. We won 20-5, invoking the "slaughter" rule. I myself played well (and it's so amazing how you can actually hit the ball when you keep your eyes on it), although all that matters is that the team got a "W." We're now 4-5 with an outside shot at the playoffs. And if we make it in, we're a force to be reckoned with! Whether we make the playoffs or not, the summer season starts soon. And since our team is starting to bond and really come together, we're probably going to dominate then. To commemorate this, the team will be renamed from the Pasadena Steamers to some new name, something that's dirty and can't be mentioned here.

Formula 1: This is the best sport ever. I will not even bother to debate this. My current ranking of sports goes something like this: 1. Formula 1; 2(T) College Football; 2(T) NFL Football; 4. MMA fighting; and that's it. Baseball is too boring, except for the post-season. Basketball is poorly officiated (maybe even rigged), so there's no point in watching such a sport where the officials can't make up their minds about what's a foul or not a foul, and what's travelling. Anyway, this has led Kristin to mock me as the worst sports fan ever. I disagree, and tell her that she should just go watch Gossip Girl or something while I have my alone time watching "cars going around in circles." In the end, it's all very therapeutic for me.

Running: I'm in training for a half-marathon, and I'm up to 10-mile runs. My lovely wife refuses to join me. Again, she thinks my activity is lame and boring.

Cinco de Mayo: We were supposed to go to a Cinco de Mayo party on Uno de Mayo, but a certain cousin of Kristin let us down. You know who you are. You better make it up by bringing your A-game next time.

TV: What the heck is going on in "Lost"? And "Jon & Kate Plus 8" ended a few weeks ago. Although check this out. And now we're watching "The Biggest Loser." Of course, I think their measuring system is bogus. They take percentage of total weight lost to determine who's doing the best. They should be taking percentage of excess weight lost. The results are skewed (favoring the ones who start most out of shape), and I'm considering writing a strongly-worded letter to the producers.

Babies: None.

Kristin: Still rocking out on the Guitar Hero.

That's it for now. I'll try to keep writing. Thanks for reading.

VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight was a great night of softball. We won! It was quite exciting. But I'll get to the details of it in a bit. I would have been blogging earlier, to provide you the highest quality blog-ertainment. But Kristin stole the computer from me, and messed around on Facebook for 10 minutes or so while I sat there and waited. So not only will she not put forth the effort to blog, but now she is actively blocking my blogging.

Anyway, tonight's game started like just about all the others. We fell behind early, and we found ourselves in a big hole. And as for me, in the first four innings, I was 0 for 3 with a strikeout, with two of my at-bats ending the inning. So clearly, things were going bad, and particularly so for me.

But then came the fifth inning. The Pasadena Steamers (that's us) staged a monumental rally, pushing 17 runs across the plate, going from 11 down to 6 up. And the most sensational part was my VERY ordinary hit in the middle of the inning. With one out, I had two strikes on me and was just about ready to strike out or ground out for a fourth time in the game, but a teammate yelled out some inspirational words of wisdom (very much like Yogi Berra or some other baseball philosopher), and it put me in the right frame of mind to knock an easy single into right-center field. I don't know if it's possible to even overstate this, but it was miraculous!

In the top of the sixth inning, the other team only scored three runs, so we ended up with a solid win. And as for me, I was thinking about retiring in shame (since my batting performance had been so bad), but now I can almost retire in glory (since I've now doubled my hit total for the season).

That's it for now. But with a win next week, we can keep our playoff hopes alive. I'll let you know how it goes, unless I have four strike-outs next week, which is very possible, in which case I won't.

Easter

Today, we went over to my aunt's house for Easter. Because it was going to be warm, I wore shorts. The particular pair of shorts I chose were a bit loose around my waist but not too loose that I would need a belt. But then I figured that I'd be dealing with certain hooligans while at my aunt's house - my cousins Domenic and Patrick - and that one of them might try to pants me at some point. So I decided that I'd wear a belt. Sure enough, Patrick tried to pants me (only 10 minutes or so after our arrival) . Disaster avoided due to a little forethought.

Then, at little later, I checked Facebook on my phone. Apparently, I had received a friend request from Christopher Pagano, in Indiana. I don't know this Christopher Pagano. I have nothing in common with him. So as much as it intrigues me that he wants to be my Facebook friend, and as much as I need more friends so as to catch up to Kristin (who always has 10 to 20 more friends than I do), I'm going to have to ignore his friend request.

Finally, a Festivus-style "Feats of Strength" has been in the works with my cousin Steven for quite some time. Over Christmas, he was supposed to do 100 push-ups in 5 minutes, for $100. He claimed at the time that he couldn't do it because he hadn't had time to train because he had been sick leading up to that day. Well, today, he has ready to go. Since he had had extra time to train, I offered him only $20 if he could do 100 in 5 minutes. We went out to the front yard, and he made a go of it. After 25 seconds, he had completed the first 20. By the end of the first minute, he was done with 40. I was starting to get worried that I might lose. Then it took him a minute to do the next 20. At this point, he had 3 minutes to do 40 more. Well, the next 10 push-ups took him quite a bit of time, and the next 10 even more, and the next 10 even more. With 30 seconds left, he had 10 to go. He made a valiant try, but most of his final push-ups didn't meet the technical requirements of a push-up, such that most were excluded. And as time ran out, our official counter (cousin Patrick) had him at 93. So close, yet so far! Sorry Steven, good luck next time. However, the major question is what should be the next event for the Feats of Strength. I'm thinking of making him run a 10k in under 50 minutes next Christmas. I think that would be fair. Any other suggestions?

A Vicious Pine Cone?

We spent a lovely day at the bar, watching Michigan St. beat UConn, helping Kristin clinch a win in her office's NCAA college basketball tournament bracket. We then watched a little of the Carolina-Villanova game. But when we realized it was going to be a blowout, we took off. We walked back to my car, got in, and closed the doors. And then the back window shattered.

The result was this:

So the moral of the story is that bird crap isn't the only thing you have to worry about when you park under trees. Also, if anyone is to be blamed, it's probably Obama.

One Cookie

Yesterday, I made chocolate chip cookies after dinner (M&M cookies, to be precise). It was really one of my lesser performances in making cookies. The result was the following cookie (singular):


Well, I realize that this wasn't one of my better performances. However, from it sprang an opportunity. Normally, when there are cookies, Kristin tries to limit me to one cookie per day (knowing that I'll eat four anyway). But with this cookie, I can eat the whole thing and still technically fall within her regulations.

Victory acheived through an unexpected loophole!

Follow-Up Items

Connect 4: Having played upwards of 1000 games starting in January, I finally quit a few weeks ago. It was quite a drain on my time.

Softball: Nothing good to report. We are 1-1 in our last two games, but my hitting prowess is regressing. It's quite embarrassing. I'd consider quitting for the sake of the team, but I don't want to be a quitter.

Wrist Fat: I am now convinced that this is more real than ever. I've really picked up the pace and the distance in my running, and I can feel that I've lost a bunch of weight. I've even gone down one belt size. But when I went to weigh myself yesterday, I had lost only two pounds since early January. So it's pretty evident at this point that all the weight from my waist is going straight to my wrist. Who would have thought?

Additional Items:
The Formula 1 racing season is on! Feel free to come over at 2am this weekend to watch GP of Malaysia.

Wrist Fat

Over the holidays, I gained a bit of weight. During the time from Thanksgiving all the way through the Super Bowl, my eating habits were quite prolific.

Anyway, since that time, I've dialed back on the calories just a bit, and picked up the pace and increased the distances in my running. And the results have been positive. I can see that I've definitely lost some weight; I've even moved to the next hole on my belt.

However, as my waistline has shrunk a little, a disturbing development has occurred almost simultaneously. Last week, my watch became very uncomfortable on my wrist. It was suddenly way too tight.

Basically, my wrist had gotten fat. Is it even possible to get fat in the wrist? Will friends and family now start claiming that it looks like I've packed on some pounds in the wrist area?

Kristin's "Gambling Habit"

I have a friend. Let's call him "Matt." Matt has a slight addiction to gambling, and thus Las Vegas. Whenever Matt is in a casino, it's not possible for him to walk from A to B without first stopping at every other blackjack table, roulette wheel, etc. Along the way, he can potentially lose hundreds of dollars. Because Matt is so prolific in Vegas, the casinos "invite" him back with complimentary rooms. Matt takes advantage of Vegas' invitation and then proceeds to lose more money while gambling. It's not something I could do, but at least he's having fun, and that's what counts.

I also have a wife. Let's call her Kristin. Kristin has a slight addiction to shopping. There are certain stores (Banana Republic, to name the biggest offender) at which she shops so much that they like to invite her back, through coupons, discounts, etc. It seems she's going back every week to take advantage of "so many great deals." And unfortunately, it never ends. Just when she thinks she has everything she needs, she finds something new on the rack. And even though she doesn't need it (and I might even argue that she doesn't even want it, considering the number of times she will eventually wear it), she has to buy it, because it's such a great deal.

So I guess my question is whether there is much difference in the way casinos and retailers operate. They lure you in by promising something for free (a free hotel room, or 35% off your next purchase), only to have you spend money on something that is of little or no value to you. Anyway, these are just my thoughts. Everyone has their own little addictions, I guess.

"Lost" - **Spoiler Alert**

This week, it seems a new episode of Lost will not air. So I just thought I'd recap the last episode and make my prediction for the outcome of the show.

In last week's episode (March 4), the island finally stopped traveling in time, and so did the survivors (Sawyer, Jin, Julliete, etc). Apparently, when this happened, they were stuck in 1974. Sawyer and the gang ended up joining the Dharma Initiative, which was in full effect at that time. At the end of the episode, Jin found Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sun, and whoever else had finally come back to the island. It was a reunion three years in the making.

So here's my prediction. Since they will all be part of the Dharma Initiative, I think they are all going to die at the hands of the Ben Linus and the rest of "the others." (We already know that Ben Linus and the others killed off the Dharma Initiative.) In fact, this is the only ending that would satisfy me. I'm really tired of happy endings, and I want to see the bad guy win just once.

Victory On The Diamond

Yesterday, our team eked out a miraculous come-from-behind victory in the last inning. In a low-scoring game, we gave up 8 runs in the bottom half of the second-to-last inning, to go from up by 1 to down by 7. However, in the top half of the last inning, we scored 10 runs in an amazing rally. And in the bottom half of the inning, we held the other team scoreless.

It was unexpected. It was miraculous. It was beautiful.

As for my contribution, I reached base 2 out of 4 plate appearances, lowering my on-base percentage to .600. And I went 1 for 4, with a hit that just squeaked into the outfield. So I am now batting a pathetic .125. (I'm still looking for a batting cage to go to.)

But we did win, and that is what's most important. Of course, right now, I'm really sore. I really shouldn't be running the bases like that. I'm going to hurt myself fairly soon, and it's going to be quite embarrassing (or impressive, depending on your perspective).

Car Accident

Yesterday, Kristin drove my car to work. On her way out of the parking lot, a guy driving a pick-up truck hit her head-on. At the time, the guy was messing around on his cell phone and not paying attention, while Kristin was completely stopped. Based on what Kristin said last night, my guess is that the guy was going about 2 mph. When she got home, Kristin was not happy at all. She felt bad, and mad. And the front license plate on my car was barely hanging on. Beyond that, though, there wasn't much damage. We'll take it to the body shop this weekend and see what they have to say.

So I guess this is a slight stroke of bad luck. Oh well, what can you do?

However, there are two things to mention regarding this situation:

• My car has now been in two accidents at an average speed of -1 mph. In the first one, I hit the corner of a wall while backing up. That one cost me about $650 to fix. Hopefully, this one will cost less.
• Since Kristin is feeling bad about this, I wonder if I can parlay this into a piece of cheesecake this weekend (I'm kind of burned out from carrot cake right now). Probably not, because she doesn't feel THAT bad.

Well, I guess this is a lose-lose for me.

Three Posts In One

Lots to discuss today. I've got three major items, and I'll start with the least important first.

Softball: Yesterday, our team lost for the second straight game. We are now 0-2. However, there was something to be gained from this outing. We were down 19-3 in the bottom of the fifth, when we staged a rally. We scored 11 runs in that inning to bring the score to 19-14. We gave up two runs in the top of the sixth to fall behind 21-14. And in the bottom of the sixth, we scored six runs, to lose by only one. We could have won the game. We had been down by two with no outs, but our rally faltered. So sad. On a personal note, I reached base all four times I stepped up to the plate. I had two walks (I've been told it's bad form to take pitches in a softball game, so I'll have to re-evaluate for next week), and reached base two other times on infield errors. At least I made contact (although it wasn't all that solid). I also scored three times and had an RBI. So it was a definite improvement on last week. My cumulative batting average is 0.0000 (0-4), but my on-base percentage is now a stellar .667 (4-6).

Blogging: It seems my cousin Pam Sciarra has started her own blog. Apparently, I was her inspiration. (The fact that I am inspiring anyone to do anything is alarming.) This blog will have a link to hers as soon as authorized.

New People: And much more important than the previous two items, Ava Lyn Freiburg was born yesterday morning after something like 26 hours of labor. Congratulations to John and Cheryl! In my humble opinion, Ava looks just like her grandmother, Lynda Cabigas. Good luck to Ava in navigating this crazy world.

Anyway, that's it for now. I hope you're all doing well.