Call me Ishmael, or Howard Schultz

A dream job has become available. Okay, that may be over-stating it. How about an ideal job. Starbucks is looking for a lobbyist in the Washington office.

I know it sounds completely corporate of me, but I always have loved Starbucks - their products, the coffee toys that are on display, the atmosphere at the stores, and the way they get involved in local activities and charities. I took several weeks off a few months ago to spend with my son. Every morning, I took him to Starbucks so we could have coffee and read the paper. It was such a great way to start each day.

Representing Starbucks would be very cool, so I sent them my resume. I'm sure a lot of other people feel the same way and they are going to be flooded with inquiries about the position. It's probably a long shot, but what the hell.

We Don't Need No Stinking Curses

I guess I almost was hoping that the Sox would lose the World Series because I did not want the list of 'teams of futility' to shrink by one. The list now is as follows:

Chicago Cubs (1908)
Chicago White Sox (1917)
Cleveland Indians (1948)
Your San Francisco Giants (1954) - and that was as the New York Giants

The St. Louis Cardinals become the first World Series team since 1988 to have won 100 games in the regular season and lose. That team, the Oakland Athletics, also was managed by Tony LaRussa.

Baby Blues

Today, I had the rare treat of visiting my son at his daycare facility for lunch. The staff was having a Halloween inspired pot luck lunch and since it's been slow at the office, I decided to participate. I'm always a little despondent when I leave him there because part of me feels like I'm failing by not being with him all the time to take care of him.

Meanwhile, a little crisis is brewing at the daycare facility. A new director started working there two weeks ago and morale among the teachers has plummeted because of her micro-managing, demanding ways. She also is condescending toward staff and berates them in front of others. There are whispers that she is prejudice against African-Americans.

The new director hasn't made a good first impression with me and my wife either. A case of pink-eye hit the infant room this week and she expressed concern to us that our son might have it. He has exhibited no symptoms what-so-ever, although his eyes watered a bit after he was taken outside for a walk. Hello, that happens to babies, particularly if it's a little windy. She kept pestering his primary teacher to keep an eye on his eye, and came to see us immediately after we got there this morning to check his eye without a 'good morning' or 'hello.' Then, she asked, "Doesn't his eye look swollen?" It was clear that it was not. I understand her trying to be vigilant about keeping illnesses in check, but have a little common sense and certainly don't over-react. If we had any sense that something was wrong with him, we would stay home with him or take him to the doctor immediately.

Amazing Grace

Our son's primary teacher at his day care facility suffered a miscarriage last week. Very heartbreaking. What makes it even more difficult for her is that she works with infants everyday. Anyone else would be able to avoid contact with babies or pregnant women by averting their eyes or what have you. Not her, she has cute babies staring back at her everyday and she has to try to smile and work through it.

It's amazing how one changes after having a child. I now can't watch a TV show, movie or a news item about a child or children in peril without getting emotional. I know it's going to be impossible to avoid having something bad happen to my son, but I'm certainly going to try.

Hey Doc, his BP is rising

I went to the doctor a couple weeks ago for a routine physical and discovered that my blood pressure is kind of high. Family genes are partially to blame as both parents have heart/bp issues. My BP apparently was high enough for the doctor to prescribe some medication and to instruct me to lose about 15 pounds. I'm not sure where I'm going to lose it as I thought I was in fairly decent shape. I usually know when I need to lose weight because my clothes begin to feel tight, but I haven't been experiencing that. I did begin weight-training a couple years ago and have acquired some definition, but that is suppose to have minimal, if any, impact on weight gain.

Ugh. Three years ago, I lost 20 pounds using the Weight Watchers plan. Looks like I'm going to have to give it another whirl. I feared the medication would have side effects, but fortunately I have not experienced any after a week-and-a-half of taking the drug. Granted, I probably couldn't see if a third eye was growing in the back of my head, but I would think that my wife would point out something like that.

There's No Joy in Mudville

Not because mighty Casey has struck out, but because mighty DC-Giant could not play baseball yesterday due to rain. I play baseball in this weekend recreational league for men over 30 (I barely qualify). Baseball was my favorite sport growing up and I was thrilled to come across another opportunity to play. Softball just was not an adequate substitute.

I had to make due with playing basketball last night in this game I'm involved with every Fall. I was not going to start playing basketball until baseball season ended in order to spend more time with my wife and infant son. Before he was born, I was able to complete a double-header in which I would play baseball during the day and basketball at night. Stocks of ibuprofen companies sky-rocketed on Mondays.

Speaking of baseball, interesting item in the Wall Street Journal today about how a Red Sox World Series victory would ruin the 'Reverse the Curse' industry in New England. Note that the Red Sox went up 2-0 in the 1986 World Series.

Willie, Mickey & the Duke

Glad to see two historic franchises battling out in the World Series this year. Don't have particularly strong feelings for or against either team. I always have respected the appreciation that St. Louis fans have for their team, and for baseball in general. As a Giants fan, I can related somewhat to Boston fans, as they often are overshadowed by a high-profile rival (Yankees and Dodgers), and they have gone a long time without a World Series title. Granted, the Sox have gone much longer.

I'll be curious to see what happens to Boston if the Sox do win the WS. The Curse seems to be their raison d'etre. It might result in the baseball equivalent of the last scene in the Robert Redford movie 'The Candidate.'

Like Father...

My wife said the nicest thing to me last night. As we were preparing our infant son for bed, she said, "I hope he ends up just like you." My God, I hope he ends up infinitely better. He is off to a great start. He is the best baby. He sleeps through the night and likes to smile, laugh and play all the time. We're very lucky and we hope it continues as he gets older. I hope we are not going to pay for this during the 'terrible twos.'

One of my greatest fears in life is that one day, my wife will figure out that she could have done so much better than me. Fortunately, she still is delusional. She's the best kind of wife - she thinks she is high-maintenance, but she's really low-maintenance.

White Republicans

Like there's another kind. Saw a Bush speech on CNN today that featured a bunch of doctors dressed in white coats in the background. I had the TV on mute, but I assume the speech was in support of malpractice reform. Any time I see a bunch of white Republicans dressed alike I get scared.

Another little item I noticed today was that the lawyers for Talk-Radio-on-TV host Bill O'Reilly are going to be in court next Friday for his sexual harassment suit. It appears that in order to be a conservative TV/radio host, you must be: a drug addict (Rush), a harasser of women (O'Reilly), gay (Armstrong Williams), or transgender (Ann Coulter). Poor Armstrong Williams - he wants so badly to be white and straight that he uses very conservative political beliefs as a beard.