Go Cubs Go!

I'm not afraid any more.
The most cursed team in baseball, my Cubs, are freakin' good this year. Hex or no hex, billy goat or Bartman or the Babe, whatever. We're saying screw all that this year.
I think they've got a real shot to end their drought of World Series wins. For those of you scoring at home, the Cubs last won the title in 1908...as in 100 years ago. But hey, they won back-to-back titles in '07 and '08 so they were due to hit a rough patch.
Through Friday, they're up 5.5 games on the Brewers in the NL Central. Of course, with all the curses of the past, most Cub fans usually are waiting for something bad to happen. It's there in the back of my mind, but this team is different. It seems, all the pieces of the puzzle are there, including new addition Rich Harden (above).
When the Cubs win, they have a few traditions. They raise a white flag with a blue 'W' on it in center field to mark the win. Then they play this song...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrlLmTh32KI

Sure, it's corny. But hey, if they win, who cares?
Here's my favorite Cub/baseball player ever......the now-retired Mark Grace. Glad he at least won a ring with Arizona.

Big props to Shan

Believe it or not, but Shanda and I have been married for five years!
(Our anniversary was last Saturday, Aug. 2).
That's like a college player's whole career, including a red-shirt season. Pretty amazing, huh?
I mean, for her. She's accomplished more in just putting up with me than she ever did in her illustrious softball career. I guess you could say she's done more with the diamond on than she ever did on it.
To celebrate, we took a short getaway to the mountains for two days. We had originally planned to go away for longer, but with money being tight right now, we just decided to make it short. It was also the first time Shanda had left Jett at home overnight, had someone else (her mom) put him to bed and wake him up. But Momma Shan did okay with that.
We went to the movies for just the second time since Jett's arrival and saw Dark Knight. It lived up to the hype in our minds. We also went tubing on the New River, which was a lot of fun except for the storm we were caught in briefly and the sunburn I brought home.
The trip was a good capper to eight days off for me. With football getting cranked up now, I took the chance to burn five of my vacation days and built them around some weekend days. From now on, it'll be hard for me to get away for that kind of time.
While off, I had the chance to catch up with a few guys I haven't seen in a while. I ran around with Tyson on Monday, Earl came up Tuesday and I took in a Cubs game with my old WBT bud Dan Scheneman on Thursday (11-4 Cubs win!). I hadn't seen Earl since the Panthers played in the Super Bowl in early '04.
It was great to catch up with those guys. Had a few other people to see that I didn't have the chance to. But mainly, I just wanted to be able to be at home with the wife and kid, have some normal kind of nights. And we did.
Now, it's back to reality.