A NEW LOOK, SORT OF...
...which proves that DESPERATION is the mother of NECESSITY!

That may sound like convoluted logic, but in the wee early hours of this morning, I was trying to add some new elements to my blog which involved pasting 'html' code into various places in my blog. Well, in doing so, I wiped out EVERYTHING! Basically, I messed up the code that governs the "template", or the overall appearance of what you're reading right now. I was freakin'! So, after wrestling with the problem for a couple of hours to no avail, I went back into the "blogger" website and downloaded the same template over again. And, all of the correct 'html' specs were put back into the template, and voila, I'm back in business again. Whew! So then, with my confidence restored, I went back into www.bravenet.com and www.clocklink.com, and got all the goofy things you see on the left side of this blog. In addition, I'm only featuring 5 posts on this here front page, so for rest of my written insanity, you'll have to delve into the archives. And finally, that cartoon-thing is actually a clock, and below that, the 'Bush countdown clock' you see is aiming for the date of January 20th, 2009, which is Bush's last day of office. We are all waiting for that day, aren't we?
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AN UPDATE FROM THE "WILD KINGDOM": I wrote in a previous post that I got rid of my parakeets and got FINCH instead. And I marveled at how well they were all getting along but it appears I spoke too soon. Yes, there were some disagreements between the two females, who were both nesting, but I didn't think anything 'severe' would happen, since their nests were on opposite sides of the cage. Well, WRONG WAS I. When I woke up and went to feed the birds this morning, one of the females was laying on the bottom of the cage, and half of her head feathers had been pulled out, and some were missing on her back, too. Where her feathers had been was naked bloody bird flesh instead. Evidently during the wee-small hours, there was quite a female-on-female bird squabble. Poor little bird...so, before breakfast, I pulled her out of the cage, placed her in a covered box, then raced off to the pet store to get another cage. So now, she's safely housed, all alone for a while 'till her feathers grow back. And she's doing pretty well; by late afternoon she was hopping around the cage, eating and drinking water. When she's better, I'll put the male bird she was nesting with-- in with her. Why can't we all just get along, huh? This whole incident has been a microcosm of the merciless, unsympathetic world we live in. What a deal. I was actually shocked at the brutality this poor little bird suffered.
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ANOTHER PITCHING MELTDOWN: In tonite's game against the New York Yankees, it was once again batting practice for another Mariners' opponent. After the previous game's sterling 9-inning effort by Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista came off looking almost as bad as Jeff Weaver, if that's possible...the Yankees leaped out to a 7-0 lead early in the game, which again found the M's in the unenviable position of playing come-from-behind baseball. Needless to say, Batista made an early exit, and the "long-relief" pitcher (can't remember his name right now), came in and pitched really well. Hey, it's hard remembering the names of M's pitchers, since they've been dipping into their farm-team quite a lot lately to bolster their pitching staff. Felix Hernandez is gonna be returning soon. Then maybe Jeff Weaver can get sent to a farm team. No, not a baseball team; he should be out driving tractor right now the way he's been pitching. And to think that Weaver looked so good in last year's World Series. What happened? I imagine sometimes Manager Mike Hargrove feels like the little dutch boy, except that he (Hargrove) doesn't have enough fingers to plug all the holes in the dike. Especially when he's standing in QUICKSAND. Oh yeah, the M's are doing better now than at this point last season, and I'll keep listening and rooting for 'em. But a lotta heads may be rollin' fairly soon if the M's can't get consistent. Consistently GOOD, that is.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT'S DUE: And, then in today's game, the M's beat the Yankees in a PITCHERS' DUEL, of all things, by a margin of 2-1. So the M's are now above .500. And I understand the M's have signed another relief pitcher from Cleveland...so maybe things are happening. And, Felix Hernandez is due back very, very soon. So we'll see wot happens!
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I'm always glad when the Yankees get beat; it doesn't matter who beats 'em. It's just a matter of principle. The big Yankee machine. The only thing that makes it sweeter is when Seattle beats 'em. STEEEE-RIKE!!!!!!