It's Time to Scrap Iron

Fire Phil!!!



The Astros have lost 10 straight games. Of course, I was ready to can Phil long before then, even before they made it to the World Series in 2005 (and got swept).

Baseball is a game of percentages. You maximize your chances of success in every situation, and you maximize your chances of winning over time. If you constantly make decisions that are suboptimal, even if only by a few percentage points, those add up, and ensure that you will fall short of your potential. Any time Garner makes the high-percentage decision, it's a coincidence.

I am rooting for the Astros to lose as many games as it takes to get Phil canned. Even if they were to name Jose Canseco as interim manager, at least there would be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Also, it's time for Biggio to go. He's been a great player (although a little overrated in my mind) for a long time, but he is absolutely killing the club now. Over the past 3+ years, he is a .232 hitter on the road. Why do we even play him on the road?!? It's not like he's stellar at defense.

Update 6/04/07:
Hey, I know!!! Let's sit Biggio when we're playing at home, where his average is 60 points higher than on the road... and when people have traveled from out of the town possibly just to see Biggio play! If the whole point is to give him two days rest, then rest him on the first day of the road trip. Just another example of a bad move wrt the percentages.

Here's the story about this move.

I see your cuddly family of leperdillos...

...and raise you a face-eating TARANTULA!!!!!



We found this seven-legged monster on the back of the house today. As he started moving toward the back patio, I was ordered to capture the beast. He's already been released back into the wild (i.e., Barrett's garage).

Comment spam

Thank you to all you loyal readers that try to post comments, even on entries that are weeks and months old. I'm afraid the popularity of this site is forcing me, however, to put some limitations on the types of comments that you can submit going forward. Here is a list of words that will not be allowed in user comments from now on, and which will no longer send email to me to notify me that a comment is awaiting moderation. Thank you for your understanding.

-Brickashaw Management

cialis
viagara
phentermine
ionamin
fioricet
xanax
valium
zoloft
tramadol
ambien
levitra
ultram
meridia
nofollow
activan

Update: I've added some more
lexapro
viagra (some spammers can spell, some can't)
V14GR4 (this one because of joshvar)

Father of the Year

Caroline's training for the triathlon Saturday mornings, so I have the task of getting the boys ready in the morning and taking them to Grant's soccer game. This morning I was all set. Boys were fed and dressed and we were headed out the door. I put Andrew into his car seat in my car, and he was not happy about it, so I jingled my car keys to distract him and handed them to him. Then I went around to the other side of the car to put Grant in.

Unfortunately, the car door wouldn't open. I tried the front passenger's side, and it was also locked. I reached into my pocket to get the key fob to unlock it again, and then it hit me. My keys were in the car with the baby. Baby Andrew had hit the LOCK button on the key fob in the 5 seconds it took me to walk around the car. I had no way to get back into the car. The house was locked, and Caroline was on a bike someplace and not due back to the house for a couple of hours.

Then Andrew hit the LOCK button again. I could hear the car re-locking itself. I peeked in and smiled at him, and he smiles back, obviously thrilled with his ability to make the locking sound by pushing the button. He hit it again, and I tried to open the car door, which of course was still locked. He must have hit LOCK about 15 times, but never UNLOCK. I really didn't know what to do to get him out of there. I think my options are waiting around until Caroline comes home, breaking a window, or calling the fire department. I also futilely call Caroline 10 times, but I know there's no way she's going to answer. The neighbor is out front to take his son to his soccer game, and Grant gleefully reports our dilemma to them. Luckily, I think only their 4-year-old is paying attention.

Andrew gets bored with hitting the LOCK button, and resorts to putting the key fob in his mouth. He's still very happy inside the car. A couple of minutes pass without him miraculously hitting the UNLOCK button with his gums. Then he puts the car keys down. They are sitting in the car seat next to him. Pretty much no chance he is going to somehow unlock the car now.

I think for a couple of more minutes, wondering if I would have been better off paying for On*Star service after all, and whether they would be willing or able to remotely unlock the car for me even though I don't subscribe to the service. About now I start to explain to Grant that we are not going to be able to make it to his soccer game today.

Then I hear a glorious beeping sound and the tail lights flash. That means the car has just been unlocked. I sprint to the door to open it before Andrew has a chance to hit the LOCK button again, and it opens. The whole episode all of the sudden seems very funny, and I am amazed at my luck that my 10-month-old was able to pick up the car keys and push the right button. Time to find a new toy to distract the baby rather than my car keys!

Mavs :(

My former co-worker Trebor called it about 2 weeks left in the regular season, saying he hoped the Mavs didn't match up against the Warriors in the playoffs. I blame Trebor.

I watched a lot of the Mavs this season, and they were very good, but it was pretty clear the entire series that they didn't have any sort of edge against Golden State, and having the gaudy record and #1 seed meant all the pressure was on them. It's hard to believe that the NBA playoffs will still be going for another 6 weeks, and the Mavs are already out. The Astros are pathetic. Somebody wake me up in July.