Pot Pourri (a useless post)

• Robyn and I are heading out tomorrow for a few days away. The 5 year anniversary is Saturday, and we're gonna take a few days, sans the little monster, for our last escape before baby #2 arrives via stork in approximately 8 weeks. Good luck to GG, Grandpa, and the Brenz as they tag-team The Tobe. And good luck to Robyn and me as we try to remember how to spend time together without the boy.
  


• Regarding the mascot post, it should be duly noted that Tye and I got to see Gapper and Mr. Redlegs in their first on-field appearance since the accidental decapitation incident. Monday night, we arrived early for the Reds-Marlins game and watched the end of Marlins batting practice. (Holy crap can Jeremy Hermida and Mike Jacobs hit BP bombs...)
  
  Gapper came out on his quad, driving around like the wacky Muppet that he/she is, sans Mr. Redlegs. Then, out of the bullpen gate, Mr. Redlegs walks out onto the field. (He usually comes out on the back of Gapper's quad.) The kicker? Mr. Redlegs was wearing a neckbrace. Comedy at its finest, ladies and gents.
  


• We were down at GABP early because Burke was starting for the Fish. It's wild... I grew up idolizing baseball players. I would imitate their pitching mechanics and batting swings in the backyard. I would make believe that I was a big leaguer. And now, I can say I kinda/sorta know a guy pitching in the bigs. Or, well, umm... at least I know I was at his 21st birthday party. For whatever that's worth...
  
  It was the first time in my life that I rooted against the Reds. I felt very dirty. While I wanted to see Burke get a W, my soul was a little relieved when the Marlins bullpen gave up his lead and the hometeam won. Man. I need a shower just thinking about it... but I guess it's ok to have loyalty to people (Burke) rather than institutions (the Reds franchise), right? RIGHT?!
  
  For the record, Burke's first 3 starts were a learning experience (0-2, 9.00 ERA, 4.8 K/9), but he has come on strong in his last 3 starts (1-0, 4.07 ERA, 7.6 K/9). He's a sinkerball guy, and he gets so much movement on his pitches that he has the ability to make opposing hitters look downright silly, even with a fastball that tops out around 91 mph. It's gotta be cool to get Griffey to hit 2 weak grounders to first! Plus, as a bonus, he wears real stirrups. (Thanks for the pics, Dan)
  


• When at GABP with Robyn & Tobe for the Cubs game last week, I was introduced to a new annoyance from the big business that is professional sports. Robyn was asked by a nice old lady if she would take a Reds Fan Survey, and Robyn is just too dang nice to say no. I'm sure she would have just said no if she knew it was to take so dang long. Could've at least offered her some swag for her time spent not enjoying the ballpark...
  
  Then a much younger female asked if she could take our picture for reds.com. We said sure, she snapped the pic, and handed us a card. "The pictures will be up later tonight on reds.com..." Turns out, it's just a ploy to get people to buy the pictures, which are of course blurry until you buy them. I guess I just would prefer not be bothered while at the game. Call me old school, I suppose, but I don't even want to have to politely say "please leave me alone, I'm not giving you any money..." when walking to and from our $32 seats. This image makes me want to ask so many questions:
  
  (1) Would anyone really pay $31.99 for a 5x7 and the digital download of such a picture?
  (2) Would anyone really pay $139.99 for a 13x16 24k gold frame with a ghetto collector coin and field dirt?
  (3) How is it that Toby's head is bigger than mine?
  
  These are things that keep me awake at night...
  
  
• Not necessarily deserving of it's own post, but here's today's Random Lyric I Didn't Just Enjoy:
  
  I recently mentioned that Kroger seems to enjoy playing the same Paula Abdul song over and over and over again. Well, there's a new unfortunate song that is embedded in my noggin as of the last couple weeks. 3 times in the last 2 weeks, while at different Kroger locations, I have been bombarded with "Lucky" by the queen of motherhood herself, Ms. Spears.
  
  Why do these tears fall at night, you ask? Don't know... but good luck with your life... seriously. I like to see de-railed trains wind up on tracks again. Redemption is a good thing. I guess we rarely see redemption come out of those in fame, though. And I doubt hanging with Doogie is going to suddenly make her sane again. Talk about a dramatic fall from grace...
  


• I can no longer stream pandora at work. I'm bummin'. Must've taken too much bandwidth, cause it's restricted now. These last 6 weeks have been awful without good music at my fingertips. I need to start using the Zune for all that it's good for. That thing hasn't been touched for probably 2 or 3 months, and I'm getting really sick of over-the-air radio and the 10 CDs at my desk. I knew how to load up the iPod (RIP), but I've had my frustrations with the Zune.

Surely there is more blogworthy stuff, such as CashAmerica closing its doors in Ohio, or Hillary's continued pursuit of the Dem nomination, or Jay Bruce's continued struggles* in the minor leagues, or the Post Office finally cutting their grass, or Toby's ridiculous mastering of the English language, or Robyn's and my collective inability to name baby #2... but those things will have to wait until a(nother) rainy day.

(* denotes sarcasm)