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I've been contemplating this same thing. I'm sort of like Pitchleague...a certified teacher looking for a full-time job, and there isn't much in Wisconsin in my field. Unlike a lot of you, I am married, so I'd have to convince my wife to move, too (however, she is job hunting at the moment, so maybe a change of scenery would do her well). I've thought of the Pacific Northwest, northern Arizona (I couldn't handle 120+ in the summer), or North Carolina. Nearby, I've been thinking of the Twin Cities or northern Illinois. I don't despise winter, in fact I sort of embrace it until March, so I don't need a warmer climate. The thing is we have a lot of ties here in Wisconsin. Her parents are less than an hour away and mine less that two. She is an aunt and I'm soon to become an uncle. Most of our friends live in the Madison-Milwaukee-Chicago triangle, so we see each other quite a bit. Leaving friends would be pretty difficult for me, and I think leaving her family would be difficult for her. I keep saying...it doesn't have to be permanent...even 5-10 years. Then I think about the actual move and, yikes!

The Cubs could lose- for the season- Lee, Ramirez, Soriano and Zambrano in spring training, and they would still be the favorites to win the World Series...that is in the eyes of the Chicago media and fans.

Thank you for mentioning this area. This area is beautiful and the APT is fantastic. Those that have been there would agree. I'm quite suprised that no one has mentioned the Wausau area for either good or bad. I find it is sort of the gateway to the Northwoods, which would be in my top 10 for tourist attractions. I lived up there for a summer and quite enjoyed it (Wausau that is).

I'm probably overvaluing this aspect of the game, but I'm going to say Jason Kendall because of how he will handle the pitching staff throughout the course of the game. I thought I read somewhere that the staff last year didn't necessarily like the way Estrada worked with the staff and called games, but Kendall is fantastic with that part. He may not hit well or even throw a lot of runners out, but I think having him back there instead of Estrada will help. Plus, I see him hustling a bit more, which, could possibly mean he gets an extra couple of hits over the course of the year that will mean something.

Well, amongst my many jobs, I get a couple decent perks... From one job, I get cheap hotel rooms. Can't beat $49/night at an Embassy Suites. From another job, I get paid to watch concerts, shows and some sporting events and get paid to go to trade shows/conventions.

You're not the only one. Hundreds of baseball games, only all in Milwaukee (unless you count a AAA game in Des Moines when I was about 7 or 8 that got postponed due to tornadoes).

Also, in the second half of a college game, there is a 5th "floater" timeout. This one is taken after the first called team timeout of the half. So...say a team starts off on a big run to begin a half and the other team calls a timeout with 17 minutes left in the half. That is the first called team timeout, and a TV break. Then the ball goes out of bounds with 15:59 left, that is the first stoppage after the 16 minute mark, another TV timeout. It can be weird.

I have read that in Madison, even though the city has grown in area, there are still the same number of plows on the roads as there were 20 years ago. I think snow removal in Madison is dismal at best. The city is unique, however. First of all, most of the worst plowed roads are on the isthmus. It's hard to plow roads that have cars parked on them all the time, despite snow emergencies. People who live downtown have reduced options for parking, and the roads aren't that wide. What makes it worse is the day after the snowfall when all the cars that were parked in get out, and there is a pile of snow left where no one can park. The city also reduces the amount of salt it uses on the isthmus due to the lakes. Other roads that are miserable are in new subdivisions where the only traffic is residential. Today, there was no reason why E. Wilson downtown wasn't plowed at 7:45. Lots of people who work for the state and the city traverse down E. Wilson to get to work, and it was a sloppy mess. As was John Nolen. I thought it may have been too cold for salt...that was until I got to work and they had salted all of the sidewalks. They sure looked clear to me.

I didn't include Miami largely because of recent success. The Heat won the NBA championship a couple years ago and the Marlins do have 2 World Series in 10 years, though they have given away their team after each of them. Yeah, they all are bad now, though. The Lightning did win a Stanley Cup a few years ago, and the Bucs have been mostly respectable since they got new uniforms (mid-90's) Yeah, Philly should be on that list. Their teams have been close, but not quite. The Flyers in the mid-late 90's, Eagles in the early 2000's, Sixers in the mid 90's and the Phillies...1993.

I want to know, can a 5 ounce bird carry a one pound coconut?

I thought of this topic when the Giants and Pats won on Sunday...what fans are the most fortunate or unfortunate because of their teams' success? I'll put up a couple criteria... A city must have at least two professional franchises College teams may also be considered, as long as the area has 2 professional franchises as well Here are my top 5 for most fortunate fans... 1. Boston. I never want to hear anyone from Boston complain about anything anymore. I don't care if the Bruins are bad, your other three teams more than make up for it. 2. New York. They've had a championship drought and the Knicks and Rangers are pretty bad, but a Super Bowl appearance and countless consecutive playoff appearances by their baseball teams make up for that as well. 3. Los Angeles. Angels are pretty good, Dodgers compete every year and make the playoffs quite a bit, Lakers had a good run a few years back, USC is a perrenial powerhouse in football. 4. Detroit. Despite the Lions, fans in Detroit have had it good for a while. The Red Wings are always amongst the best in hockey, the Tigers made it to the World Series, the Pistons are good year in and year out and have won a couple championships along the way. Then there is Michigan football and hockey...always pretty good. 5. This was a tough one, but I'm going with recent success and saying Cleveland. The Browns very easily could have been a playoff team and were really fun to watch, the Indians could have (and probably should have) made it to the World Series last year, and the Cavs made it to the NBA finals. People in Cleveland also have Ohio State down the road a ways. Least fortunate (a tough list to compile) 1. Seattle. Despite the Seahawks making the Super Bowl a couple seasons ago, this city had had nothing but bad luck when it comes to sports. The Mariners choked a few years back when they won 116 or so games and never were able to get over the threshold. Fans have seen Griffey, ARod, Randy Johnson amongst others be traded away, and have blown bad money on Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson. They've been pretty bad since 2001. The Sonics haven't been the same since Shawn Kemp got fat, and have since given away Ray Allen. Washington football, once a Pac 10 powerhouse, is just a shell of its former self. Their basketball team had a couple good years, but luck seems to have run out on them this year as well. 2. Washington, DC. When was the last time a team from DC made any kind of noise at all? The Redskins spend tons of money to make the playoffs every couple of years, and had the unfortunate tragedy happen to them this year. The Nationals are fairly new, but they haven't made any kind of noise in baseball, except when they had Soriano for a year. The Wizards are finally respectable, at least they were this year (I don't follow NBA, so I don't know how they are doing this year). The Capitals? No clue, but have they ever won? 3. Kansas City. Royals and Chiefs. Need I say more 4. Cincinnati. The Bengals have a bunch of jailbirds on their team and can not win. The Reds...lose games 9-8...all pop, no pitching. The University of Cincinnati as been horrible after Huggins left. 5. I'm going to say Buffalo. The Bills haven't been good in a while, and I don't know about the Sabers...though they were good and could never win.

I'm going to say the whole team. I had my hopes up really high after the 2005 season where they finished .500. They did not meet my (or anyone's) expectations in 2006. I sort of feel the same way right now. We all know how good this team can be, but we also know how bad this team can be--we saw both sides last year. For once, I'm being pretty pessimistic about the Brewers, just in case they do regress this year. For individuals...I'm scared that Braun will not put up the numbers that he did last year, even after a full season. I'm afraid of a .275 BA with 20 HR, though I realisticly don't think that will happen. I'm also weary that Gallardo will have a 4+ ERA and will end up with 10-12 wins, if that.

I will get through by watching college basketball, especially the Badgers. The NCAA tourny ends at the right time (at least for the Badgers) every year.

I was wondering...since the Brewers' top three free agent signings this off-season all signed one-year deals (with options on two of them), what is the long term plan for the team, especially regarding centerfield, catcher and closer? The team definitely attempted to address some short-term needs, but what are they going to do when these guys are a year or two older than they already are?

People who don't use their headlights when they should or have to. With this wonderful weather we've had the past couple days (really dense fog and rain), I'm amazed at the amount of people who don't have their headlights on. I actually think it is a state law to have them on when it's raining. This part probably only applies to me...but my apartment has several levels of underground parking. The garage has lots of sharp turns and blind corners. They have put mirrors up to help people see, but it is still very hard to see a car in the mirror when it doesn't have it's headlights on.

To me, this is ok...at least you don't leave it in the middle of the street. I'm targeting the people who have their chute facing forwards from their driveway into the road, then don't bother to clean it up. I've also put it into the street a bit before, but then immediately moved it back to the yard or the curbside strip of lawn. Once you get to the end of the driveway, there are few options...but be curtious to everyone and don't leave your snow in the middle of a plowed street.

I'm upset at people who blow their snow into the street, especially after the road has been plowed. There has to be other places to throw your snow to than the street.

That and bowling alleys that put way too much oil on their lanes and your ball doesn't hook at all (that's the way it was on Wednesday).

There were a lot of things that bugged me this past weekend...crabby mother, hyper dog (my sister's), driving over 100 miles every day over the course of the holiday weekend, not getting sleep, family mad that I didn't spend the actual Thanksgiving day with them, rather with in-laws.... I'm sure other families' dynamics are similar, but my family is very...interesting...during the holidays. My mother, and to a lesser extent my sister, get very offended very easily during the holidays. It wasn't good enough that we drove 300 miles out of our way to see them for only 24 hours...they wanted us to be there for 72 hours. And it's not like we do anything anyways. Friday, we watched 2 Bond movies, went shopping for an hour, played Wii and Guitar Hero and ate pizza, oh and got ridiculed by my mother for every little thing. I missed 2 more days of that. I'm not sure how long it will take, but my mom needs to remember that I am now married, and I am to be split amongst the households pretty evenly. I can't make it to be with the family for every holiday every year. Right now, my sister and I both alternate who we spend Christmas eve/day with. This year, we each see our in-laws on eve/day, so we are both seeing our parents the weekend before. Next year, eve/day with my parents. My wife's parents have a great understanding of this and are fine with it. My mom...holy cow. My dad says she goes on and on about how her children don't love her and she wants to move to be closer to her family back in Iowa, yada, yada, yada. Get over it! We will still see them over the course of the holiday weekend. Enough rants about my mother.

Commercial songs...at least those products that have one song for all of their commercials. Apple, I know how to count, so I no longer need to hear 1,2,3,4. Honda, I'm tired of holding on to my dream, espcially when it isn't an Accord. Carnival cruises...I know you want people to have a lust for life, but I don't think you want them to have a lust for the life Iggy Pop had when he wrote that song. I still can't listen to Journey's Any Way You Want It because of a stupid summer-long Ford commercial 4 years ago. Even when I hear it watching Caddyshack, I can't get the stupid Ford commercial out of my mind.

One of my many jobs is substitute teaching. I swear, people, both students and teachers, don't recognize that I'm a sub. Teachers and students will come up to me and ask me questions that only the regular teacher would know. When I don't know the answer, they look at me with that look, "what do you mean you don't know." Then there are the moments when the person need something done right now because they put it off for two weeks. I tell them sorry, I can't help you... "but I need it done. What am I supposed to do?" End of rant.

I was wondering about Hyndai. I know they are cheap, but does that make them cheap? Looking at the advice of some people, I've checked out the Mazda 3, and I like what I see. The only thing is the cheaper models come with a lot of stuff optional that I'd want on my car, which would drive the price up. I'm also not sure how many used I'll find.

So I'm going to begin to look for a new car. I'm wondering what kind of cars do people like. I'm looking at something like either at Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic, or maybe a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord, depending which size I want to go with (medium or large). I want something with great gas mileage both in town and on the freeway (but not hybrid because I can't afford it), 4-door, and a decent sized trunk. I'm 6-2, 230, so I need somthing that is comfortable for me to drive in. Also, I'd rather have something that is reliable. I'm not sure about new or used. I'd rather buy used, as long as it's within three years old and has under 60,000 miles (would really like somthing around 40-45 K) and still under warranty. If it isn't that much cheaper to buy used as it is new, I'll go new. Any ideas? What would people recommend?

There have been a ton of things bugging me lately, but my main bug is: Yesterday I realized that for the month of October, I will have a total of three days off. That's 3 days where I did/do not have to go to work. Three days to attempt to live a life. However, two of those days are/were Thursday and the other I was out of town for. And a lot of those days are 10-12 hour days, if not longer. Hard to do much when there are only 4-5 hours in a day where I am not sleeping or working.

MLB: Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians NFL: Indianapolis Colts NHL: Colorado Avalanche, Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks NCAA Basketball: Iowa State Cyclones NCAA Football: Oregon Ducks NBA: Doesn't exist in my world