pitchleague

nice photos, but you need to clean your lens. I'm interested to see what the final project will look like. Please, no action shots of the urinal in use, though.

all the light switches in my parent's house are behind the door, meaning, when you walk into the dark room, you have step all the way in, shut the door, and then reach for the light switch. Maddening.

At this morning's staff meeting, I went up to a few people that I knew could handle it, made a comment, and then said, "Boom. Roasted!" I heard many laughs as I did it, so I'm guessing others watch "The Office" and understood what was going on. The best part of this episode was that my wife saw the teaser during the Super Bowl broadcast and decided to watch it since it looked so funny, even though she is only on season 3 of the series (I'm trying to get her caught up.)

Received word today that MLB 2k9 will be offered on PC this year!!!!! Finally, a new baseball game for the PC, although I've got my MVP 05 updated to the 08 mod through MVP mods so it's practically a new game, although the graphics engine is really starting to show its age. I'm pretty sure I'll buy the game if it gets anywhere near a decent review by experts and users alike. Otherwise, I won't waste the money and keep playing the older game, which is pretty darn close to a perfect baseball simulation you can get (for a video game not named DMB or OOTP [i.e. text-sim games.]) By the way, is it time to change/amend the title of this thread since "Fall" is long gone?

you basically have to use the new year's version every year because the program (or the online version) includes all the tax law changes every year. If you try to use TurboTax 2006 to do this year's taxes, chances are pretty solid that you'll get something wrong due to all the changes to the tax law. Sorry to bear the "bad" news in that department.

TurboTax online for me for the last 8 years. Works great and I never seem to miss a thing. It walks you through the tough stuff if you need help, plus there is live chat with professionals if you still have questions. Love it.

is this Goozex thing just for the consoles or are PC games in there, too?

the Bureau of Unverifiable Statistics . . . . love it!

That's too bad; Munn would have been perfect for the job. I've met him in the AZ front office (he also worked Media Relations with my cousin for a number of years) and the guy is a hoot. And he knows his baseball, too. I would guess he's just too intertwined in the Valley of the Sun to leave.

so three of the five games are interleague games and not divisional battles? Thanks, networks.

I believe that at some point this season, it's going to turn into another "Curtis" incident. What I mean by this is Tony will be all down with the plan until something happens when he can exact revenge on his own terms and away from the plan and Jack will end up having to shoot and kill him ala Curtis before the nuke went off in season six. And then, if he's smart, he'll go over and shoot him 3 or 4 more times to make sure he's dead, like he did with Nina in season four (or three?) Okay, so the first part of my prediction is possible but the last sentence is hardly likely.

they were wired so Bill and Chloe heard the whole thing. Tony "described" the area in "some" detail so Bill could find her.

I don't get the offering of a hint. Suddenly, the contest isn't all that "random."

I went over to my folks to fix their cable--see, another technology story!--and was feeling fit as a fiddle. I find out upon arrival that my dad has had a cold and cough for the past 2 weeks that won't go away. He's coughing away without covering his mouth (much). I fix their cable as fast as I can and stay as far away as I can from him but then he wants to "talk" about how work is going, etc. etc. It's not like I can just walk out on my folks without being rude. But even offering subtle hints to leave didn't do the job. An hour later, I'm finally home. Guess who has a cold now and felt like crud all day? Yup, that'd be me. And that bugs me.

so, if this thing reaches into the hundreds of posts, I should have been keeping track of what numbers were already selected so I don't repeat a number? To me, running a contest like this should also be like running a fantasy football league. Keep your members informed. Otherwise, I might as well stay up all night, and make 500 posts and be declared the winner by sun up.

I like Braun's shoes in the picture. It's like he just got back from the bowling alley or something. These are the kinds of events that I'm unhappy about missing by living here in Arizona. edit: In reference to the Uecker stories, I have always wondered what occurred during the meal with Uecker that was won on that Miller Brewing Company online auction they had going about 9 or 10 years ago. It was a pre-game "dinner" with Uecker in the County Stadium media dining room with Bob Uecker. Went for several hundred (or maybe thousand) dollars to the winner. I wonder how pleasant Bob was. If you notice in photos or video of Uecker with celebrities (a photo with him and Willie Mays springs to mind) he is always looking around at other people (i.e. photographers) instead of looking at the other person as if he is specifically looking to see if other people notice that he is with this famous celebrity. It's like he thinking, "Wow, I'm just Bob Uecker and I'm standing with Willie Mays. I was a crappy player but I'm able to hang with Willie Mays. I hope somebody notices this."

111 I don't know if you want to do this, but a daily update post of all numbers received might be nice, especially if this thing reaches a few hundred posts. edit: also, what precludes someone from submitting a post with every number between 1 and 500?

I love commercials that state, "In taste tests, our product ranks higher than the leading brand." Then aren't you really stating that you're not #1 brand? Sure, people might think it tastes better but it's not doing anything for sales, since you're NOT the leading brand.

I thought Kevin was money last night. Most of his quotes I can't post here but they were golden. Also Dwight chasing Michael through the building was great, especially Michael running back up to his office just to get his keys.

nice video! I love the green slacks!

well, yeah. All the fans want to be able to say, "I was there!" when they unveiled another gaudy pennant on the catwalks celebrating the 2008 NL Wild Card. I suppose that should be in blue.

Since this thread is dying, I better just post the rest of the stories or I'll forget to do it. (by the way, apparently I can't count, because there's only 11 stories. I could have sworn there were twelve.) Here they are: 4. They got a laptop as a gift a few summers ago (2007 I believe) that had to be replaced this past November (that's a shelf life of less than a year and half, folks) because my mom fried it. "How?" you say? It wasn't the cats and their static electricity (although I am completely shocked that it was not the cause.) No, no. It was because despite my father's pleas to just put the laptop directly on the surface of the kitchen table (they eat in a different location so the table has become the "home office") like it should be, my mother would-everyday, mind you-put a cloth placemat under the laptop during the day while he was at work and then take it out when he returned home. The reason? So it would look nicer. The result? Yeah, fried laptop. My folks got a Tivo/DVD combo (one of those Humax ones) a few Christmases ago since they were going through VCRs like bubble gum. Of course, they couldn't get it to record anything. Or they got a DVD stuck inside the machine. Or the few times that they got humongous phone bills because the Tivo was trying to call for hours at a time, several times a day. Granted, this wasn't their fault (faulty hard drive) but, needless to say, I got theirs onto their network now so the phone calls are in the past. Still, this whole product, which should have improved their life, has been a nightmare. Just a week ago, they called to complain that the end of some movies they had recorded had been cutoff. They thought the Tivo was broken again. Turns out that the programming didn't start on-time and so their recording time was off-nobody's fault but the network's. Of course, I showed them how to manually add time to their recordings and my dad says, "Oh, I knew about that. I do it with my NASCAR races when I record them. I thought you could only do that with live sporting events." My mom received an inexpensive digital camera as a door prize at a Christmas party a few years ago. She would always complain that she has no pictures. I asked what kind of memory card it takes and she would respond, "what's a memory card?" After we bought her one, the photos still weren't appearing. Turns out that she kept selecting "Format card" whenever she was done using the camera. They bought a fairly nice LCD television about 2 years ago. Nothing super fancy-only a 32 inch screen. However, I would invariably get phone calls that the TV wasn't working (i.e. there was no picture.) I asked them to change channels. Nothing would happen. I went over to check it out and 5 seconds later, the problem was discovered. They had pushed the input button on the remote, changing it off the cable and onto one of the others (HDMI, SVID, etc.) and, thus, didn't know what to do. I think this one happened about four or five times before I wrote a note and taped it to the back of the remote for the "next time." Speaking of remotes, despite only needing the Tivo remote for everything, they continue to use the remote that came with the television and the digital cable box. It's a little thing but it drives me bonkers. Recently, mom has become addicted to You Tube. But instead of sending links or the address of the specific page, she'll send an email that states, "GO TO YOU TUBE AND CHECK OUT ENYA'S NEW CHRISTMAS SONG!!! JUST GO TO YOU TUBE AND CLICK ENYA!" Uh, yeah. Real helpful, mom. She sends these to other people, too. I wonder if they roll their eyes like I do. Or do they actually try to figure out what she wants them to see? My mom has made it a point of forwarding emails that she received from people because she thought that I would enjoy reading them. Of course, some are the stupid things people forward around to each other (i.e. jokes, photos, etc.) However, we usually do extended family correspondence via email and despite my email address prominently displayed on the list of senders, she still forwards her copy to me, as if I didn't get the email. Finally, this one is too good, even though it's not part of my family. Many of you know that my cousin worked in Media/Public Relations for the D-Backs for the first 10 years of the ballclub. Invariably, he would get to do stats for the visiting team's television team. He would work with all the greats (I'm still kicking myself for declining an invitation to earn some side money during a homestand with the Dodgers and doing stats with Vin Scully.) Well, in 1999 or so (not sure of the exact year), he got to work with Matt Vasgersian when the Brewers were in Phoenix. He worked the whole series with him and Schroeder. During the series finale, Matt asked him if he would like to give a shout-out to his folks back in Milwaukee. My cousin stated that he need not bother since his folks wouldn't be watching. Matt asked why not? My cousin answered that they didn't have cable. Vasgersian went into a diatribe--on the air, mind you-about how on earth his folks couldn't have cable television in 1999. My cousin added that they don't have a microwave, VCR, or any of that stuff. Vasgersian was incredulous at this point. I believe my cousin told me that every time the Brewers/Padres were in town, Matt would make a comment about it-occasionally on the air. (My apologies to my cousin, if I butchered this story, but this is how I remember you telling to me.) Okay, so this story isn't really much "on topic" but I thought it was mildly appropriate.

yes, I heard this on Sportscenter last night as I was falling asleep. The Bucks destroyed the Mavericks. Who'd a thunk that? Also, they moved into the #8 spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race. (a bit early for that kinda talk ESPN, isn't it?)

What? Are you kidding? He's probably all over Bravesfan.net doing tons of scouring of the Atlanta farm system so he is on top of his game on Opening Day. I'll second pretty much everything else others have stated. He was a great, great announcer and, from all things I have ever heard, a great, great man. He will be missed. I still remember when he first started and I paused while listening as if to say, "Who is THIS guy?" He reminded me A LOT of the Monty character from Major League (the color commentator with Uecker) since he seemed so unsure of when to speak with Mr. Uecker around. But, he developed his science and did a whale of a job that first season. I, too, never thought of Uecker as the #1 guy and Jim as the #2 man on the mic. They were equals, in my eyes, er, ears. Sure, Bob got innings 1-2, 5-6, and 8-9 but Jim the was the primary on the pre-game and post-game. They weren't afraid to chime in during each others' innings, either, but also didn't make it into some sort of ESPN 3-man radio booth in which they fight for airtime. Good luck to you and your family, Jim. Thanks for the memories and keep in touch. (I feel like adding an XXXOOO or something but that'd be too weird. Although, he is like a best friend that I never met.)

3. Once they figured things out with the internet, I would invariable get phone calls and email that they couldn't get on the internet because the computer would freeze and the screen would go completely white. Even when they upgraded to DSL, they sometimes still would not get on. After a few weeks/months of this intermittent internet trouble, I went to check it out. Sure enough, just as they said, it did in fact go to a white screen every now and then. Then I found out why. For some reason, Internet Explorer had a bug in it that made it go to one of those "About:Blank" webpages that is completely white except it also took off the taskbar on the bottom of the screen and the bar on top of the screen with the minimize, restore, and close buttons in the corner. So I could see why she had a problem. But everytime it happened, instead of opening the task manager (ctrl-alt-del) like I showed them, they just pushed the power button and rebooted. Which is very improper and hard on the computer. I have since shown them Firefox and the problem is no more.