Mets:  Ugly.  That might be the best one word answer to describe them these days.  Not sure if NY’ers feel the same way, but there isn’t much that can be done to revive them.  And I can’t really blame them for having a lousy season.  Injuries happen to every team and the deeper teams seem to handle the injuries better.  But what do you do when 3 or your 4 top everyday players and 2 starting pitchers go down for extended periods of time?!  Taking last years numbers, with Reyes, Beltran, and Delgado out the Mets are missing 81 home runs, 295 RBI’s, and 82 stolen bases based on last years stats.  And that doesn’t take into account Beltran being one of the top defensive center fielders in the league.  Now, I don’t want the Mets to all of a sudden give up the rest of the season, but I also don’t think they should be buyers with the trade deadline looming next week.

Twitter:  If you’re not using it, why aren’t you?!  If you’re only excuse is you don’t see the need to text 140 character blurbs to the world, you’re missing half it’s functionality.  I get most of my news every day using Twitter on my iPhone.  And no, I’m not talking news in the form of my friends tweeting about their last bathroom visit.  I’m not sure I even understand why certain people think their friends would be interested in that kind of stuff.  Anyway, most websites these days have twitter accounts where they publish links to recent articles.  I don’t actually get tweets from the few friends that are on Tritter.  What I do get is CNN Breaking News, ESPN News, Knicks News from Alan Hahn over at Newsday, and funny comments from Chelsea Lately (not really sure what her real last name is).  Anyway, Twitter is more than just text messages to the world.  You can find me at http://twitter.com/konstantine_p

Working out:  I’ve finally gotten back into a workout routine.  There’s still a few kinks to figure out when I’m at clients, but getting to the gym is finally a higher priority than going out for drinks.  Ok, that’s probably an exaggeration, gym and drinks are about even.  Baby steps people, I can’t make wholesale changes like that with the beach just a few blocks away.

That’s all I got for today (and the past 3 weeks).  I’ll try to get something out sooner next time, but no guarantees.

Well here we are weeks later and I’m watching the Mets play the Reds in HD. Even better, I downloaded the Directv iPhone App and was able to set up the living room receiver to record the game from the car on the way home from work. How sweet is that?! I’m now home watching the game about 30 minutes behind the actual start time. I just have to hope no one calls or texts me with a score update. Now that I think about it, I might put the phone far away so no one spills the beans.

1. This past week, for the first time, a friend asked me to set up a blog.  Most of you know her as Mary here at poulios.com.  To start, we purchased a domain name using godaddy.com.  Then we set up a blog using wordpress.com.  A few changes to the name servers at godaddy.com to forward the domain over to wordpress and now we have twohig.me for your reading pleasure.   We were also able to set up email for Mary using gmail.  If you’re not using gmail, you should be.  I’ve used hotmail (or whatever they call it these days), yahoo, and other sites here and there, and gmail is easily the best of the bunch.
2. Quicken Financial Life for Mac is set to be released this summer.  For those of you that don’t know me very well, I’m very budget conscious and track my finances at least weakly weekly.  I’ve actually cut back recently to forgo any frustration viewing my investments as they take a nosedive.  Not that I don’t spend my fair share of money on gadgets and drinks (usually not at the same time), but I like to know where my money is and where it’s going.  About 3 years ago when I bought my Macbook Pro, I tried Quicken for Mac 2007, for which I was greatly disappointed.  This, along with Apple’s inability to play WMA radio on the web, caused me to install Windows XP on my Mac using the built in Bootcamp software.  Here’s hoping Quicken Financial Life for Mac will allow me to slowly pull further away from Windows.
3. Back to my blog, I’ve installed a new plugin allowing me to add “asides” to the blog.  Asides are short posts that usually don’t warrant their own post on the blog.  The Facebook status link is a good example of an aside.  Eventually, after I play and test it out a little, this will replace the Facebook status feed.  Granted, the asides will be just as boring, but will allow you to post comments to them.

Well, there you have it.  Remember, just over 4 days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training.  Go Mets!

Joker @ 5:26 PM MST — Ok, I’m in the Bonefish Grille and about to eat a ceremonial nacho (a dorito). I’ll keep you posted.

Blog Comment – The Bonefish Grille is a new bar located at the same location as the now defunct Jackson’s.

Joker @ 5:39 PM MST — Ok, the nacho ceremony is done. Next I will tape a picture of Endy Chavez inconspicuously to the bottom of the table

Joker @ 5:44 PM MST– Ok, the picture of Endy is in place and very inconspicuous. Next is the picture of you dry mooning the camera, to be taped (hopefully hidden out of site) in the mens room.

Joker @ 5:55 PM MST — Ok, we’re all done. There’s a picture of you taped in the men’s room, out of sight, on the top of a dividing wall between two stalls. What made me chuckle was that while I was doing the deed, the song that came over the speakers was “these boots are made for walking” by Nancy Sinatra. The whole thing got very surreal and I felt like I was in a Tarantino movie. I will always remember this little episode when I hear that song going forward. The curse is over! I’m so happy. We did good K!

Here’s hoping the efforts of Joker will forever reverse the curse of the nachos!

Oh, and here’s hoping no one recognizes my bum in the mens room at the Bonefish Grill!

The next day, Joker and I decided to go back to Jacksons, but decided against the nachos.  As good as they were, nachos aren’t the healthiest food in the world.  In what turned out to be a massive roller coaster ride with great plays and a lousy strikeout looking by Beltran, the Mets lost. As we were leaving we kept saying how we should have ordered the nachos. Any self respecting baseball player/fan knows the superstition side of the game and how it can overwhelm even great teams. Think black cats and the bambino.

Ever since that game, the Mets haven’t seemed to be able to get over that hump. Yesterday, after bringing up the topic with Joker, I decided to go to my local sports bar in Marina Del Rey, Tony P’s, and order the nachos for dinner.  I know, being superstitious, this is a lousy alternative. I’m in a totally different city, different restaurant (Jacksons is now closed too), different nachos, and Joker isn’t there.  But I had to try something, as much as I’ve tried to be nonchalant about the Mets this season, they’ve been giving me daily heart attacks lately.

Wouldn’t you know it, the Mets won… and I suffered another heart attack. So, the question is, do I go to Tony P’s again tonight and order the nachos or watch the game at home where no one here’s me yelling at the TV?  I’m leaning towards going to Tony P’s. I have to do my part in helping them win, don’t I?