Sunday, February 15, 2004
We'll review THE ISSUE in a little bit, but first a commentary on the impending trade.
The Yankees have traded Alfonso Soriano and the G.N.P. for Alex Rodriguez. Now, they already have Derek Jeter at shortstop, so they'll move A-Rod to 3rd base. PErsonally, I think The New Guy is better defensively, but when the current shortstop has a few World Series Championship rings....well, he gets seniority at the position.
So now the Yankees have a hole at 2nd base to fill, but have the best SS/3B tandem in all of baseball, whether it be offensvely or defensively. He'll need some time to adjust to 3rd base, but his athleticism will cover it up well. So the Yankees have just bought themselves another title, right?
Not necessarily. They picked up the MVP of the league and quite a bit of payroll to boot. The payroll doesn't matter, other than teh expectations that come with it. And they know better than anyone the pressure that Steinbrenner brings to the situation. Winning isn't going to be fun, anymore. It'll be a relief that they didn't fail. IF tehy don't fail. They're weak in the outfield. They desperately need a centerfielder who can cover ground (like say...our own Torii Hunter), along with a 2nd baseman. Maybe they have someone in the minors or maybe they have another trade to address that. But 1st base isn't a defensive haven for the Yanks either. So remember....pull the ball to the right when playing the Yanks.
Add to the idea that their pitching staff is a mishmash of proven, but aging and brittle pitchers. They've proven themselves in other markets, but this is New York,and I dont think many of them have had to prove themselves under such a harsh spotlight with so much at stake.
That said, they have so much top end talent, it'll be hard not to win. They've go their warts, but they've bought themselves into the team to beat.
What is more troubling is that even with the (ha ha ) restrictions that baseball has placed on teams, the Yankees are STILL going out and buying or trading for whomever they want with no regard for their own payroll or anyone elses. THe luxury tax that baseball put into place during the lastbargaining agreement was supposed to get all teams closer to a level playing field. It hampered the larger market teams for the most part, at least temporarily. But the Yankees have proven again that they are on a different level. The agreement made them limp, but it didn't break their legs like some hoped, and bring them back to the pack.
The only hope for other teams is to continually develop talent, and hope to get a few lucky breaks once they get to the playoffs. However, once that talent grows and matures...if it's any good it'll most likely end up in New York, and they'll reap the benefits. What does this tell the players? If you are any good at all, at some point in your career you''ll play for the Yankees.
Sidenote: I'm sure some part of this deal happened because Steinbrenner wanted to prove that he could do what the Red Sox could NOT in getting a successful trade for A-Rod.
Finished the taxes. Looks as though we're getting a decent return. Unfortunately because of this and that and the other thing, it's pretty much already spent. I have to say, the people at TurboTax have done a great job of turning out a great product. I completed the taxes in just a few days, and that was only because I was working on it a little bit here and a little bit there. And e-filing is great...just direct deposit straight into the account and we are set in 10-16 days. I tried a few times to do it myself with the forms, and realized quickly it only led to madness. So we went to a tax accountant. $150 to have him do all the work, while we had to sit and answer his questions over a 2 hour period with a rambunxious (sp) daughter. No no no. This will NOT do. So I spend $75 on Turbo Tax Fed and State, forget to mail in the rebates to get $20-30 of it back, and spend another $25 of my refund to file electronically.
Hmmmm......
At least this way I get the illusion that it's saving me a huge amount of cash. And with the software, it's easy enough that you could ALMOST classify it as fun. Not QUITE there, but still enough to know that I don't dread the process. And when you only claim 2 dependants when you actually have 5, you can generally expect a refund rather than having to pay in.
Valentine's Day went well. The neighborhood Nanny's mom took the kids for the late-afternoon/night so that we could be a couple again. Or for the first time. It's so hard to remember these days. We were able to go shopping and talk about anything or nothing without being interuppted with the "MomIwant"s or "Shehitme"s or "baba"s. Heck, just being able to talk without being interuppted! We could go into a store without worrying about steering a stroller, or wrangling kids, or who has what child with them. We could look at topics in the bookstore that rated higher than PG.
What I gues I am saying is that we were left to simply enjoy each other's company without being interefered.
We came home and ate a steak dinner, and watched a movie togeather. (Under the Tuscan Sun...very chick-flick-ish. Woman divorces, fears of getting caught in an emotional downslide so she buys a villa in Italy on a whim, and works on fixing it up. On the way to rehabilitating her outlook on life she meets an italian man, has what seems to be meaningful sex with him, and then doesn't see him for another 3 or 4 or 5 weeks. And then complains when she tracks him down to find out he's moved on. That happens when you give the brush-off. Anyway, I found it to be a rather unfulfilling story, but maybe other people liked it more than I. ) It wasn't an ornate affair, but it suited us fine. Hopefully you found yours as contented as ours was.
2nd sidenote: I drank 2 large fruit smoothies on Saturday to no avail. That will mean something to those that know what I'm referring to. All that healthy goodness, and nothing to show for it. What a ripoff! (NO, not really.)
OK, THE ISSUE REVIEW:
OK, first off how to handle this...do I go page by page offering commentary on each individual one? That would seem to be rather tediou reading for yor part, and ould probably require you to have a copy yourself. Since not all of my readers have (or approve of) a copy, I'll just offer some highlights throughout.
first, we ahve the cover, featuring Veroniva Varekova looking over her shoulder, playfully chastizing us for taking such an interest in the bow placed on her hind end. Or for the fact that we're drooling over ourselves as she holds her bikini top in her hand. V (short for Veronica, but here at the UPdate, since we're so close to her, we just call her V) is very appealing, and quite sexy. However, we've seen better covers than this, so we are not yet impressed. There are promises of a Hall of Fame, and Anna Kournikova within the issue.
More than likely, threre won't be a single thing that remotely resembles sports within this issue.
And don't tell me that Anna plays tennis, because she doesn't. She might pose with a racket in a tennis outfit now and then, but I hardly believe what she does is considered playing tennis.
Since we're on the subject, I have to say Anna K is one of the most over-rated girls I've ever seen hyped. Cute, but certainally not the hottest girl I've ever seen. I realize I'm in the minority on this, but she justdoesn;t make me sit up and take notice. She's not even the hottest girl tennis player I've ever seen! That'd be the first version of Jennifer Capriati, if you're curious.
Then again, it's not like Anna K is as bad as Martina was. Or that woman who faced off against the guy back in the70's as some sort of women's rights movement. Diane Keaton, I think it was. No no. Wait. Lily Tomlin. Yeah, the incredible shrinking woman. Yeah, that's it.
There are some bios presented of the photographers and the assistants and what not. BLah blah blah. I'll read these at some point, but not right now. Currently, it's just wasted space that could be used for Rebecca Romjin. And don't bother to correct me about adding on the Stamos part. Daily Update law does not recognize that particular claim of marriage. Ah, finally at the models bios on page 17. May Anderson is one from theNetherlands, who suggest we should visit Denmark, since everyone allegedly is as gorgeous as she is. Riiiiiight.
Ana Beatriz Barros is Brazilian, though so far I haven't found a picture that confirms that in this magazine. (In addition to being her nationality, it's either a type of wax or cut, but if you don't know what that means, I wouldn't advise looking it up at work. ) If having her on your arm wasn't enough to make you feel like the luckiest bastard on the planet, then be sure to note that she is obsessive compulsive about cleaning her home, and that she loves to bowl, despite never breaking 100. Don't worry guys! She won't challenge your masculinity in bowling!
A personal favorite, Elsa Benitez is up next. Again refusing to acknowledge her marriage certificate (thisone to to a former NBA player), ELsa has a rather acute sense of foreboding that saved her life. Turns out that she was supposed toget on a plane in '96 in Washington DC. She had a terrible feeling taht something was going to happen, and broke down in tears. She intentionally missed her flight, and it exploded shortly after takeoff.
Yamila Diaz Rahi follows, and likes to "Blame it on the Basa Nova" the dance of love. Another Daily Update Favorite, she was in a commercial with a geeky guy and some GE appliances. Oh, to be her GE washer with an unbalanced load on the spin cycle.
Bridget Hall is a pretty, blond Cowboys fan, who would like to play the Glenn CLose character from Fatal Attraction. 'Nuff said.
We also have local girl Melissa Keller, who originally hails from Long Lake MN. Bad: 9 tatoos. It's ok for a girl to have 1 or 2, but....sooner or later the tatoos make you look a bit skanky. Worse: one of the tatoos is an electric GREEN lightning bolt. Yeesh... GOOD: Former Pannekoeken waitress. Pannekoeken is a resteraunt and a food, the latter of which resembles something similar to a dutch baby or a pancake, though with a bit more egg. YOu typically top it with fruit or sugar or something similar. One wonders if the same could be said for Melissa. Better: Melissa is not flat as a pannekoeken.
Neomie Lenoir replacing her mom as her idol with Angelina Jolie. She also listens to Norah Jones. She also is French. None of these things matter to me, since I'll never meet her. So I'll just admire from a distance.
Marissa Miller is a blond woman all of 24, and she knows how to throw a football. Even better, she plays volleyball and basketball. She also apparently wears little clothing. All pluses towards becoming the perfect mate.
Angela Lindvall currently lives on a tugboat on the Hudson River in New York. Having never been there, I can only imagine what it's like. That said, it sounds like a terribly cold palce in the winter. Surrounded not only by freezing win on all sides, but also by freezing water on the bottom of the dwelling as well. OH,that's right. I forgot. The nuclear waste in the river keeps it warm, and that neon glow must provide a keen night light for her 2 year old son!
oops. Midnight-20 and I have work tomorrow. Err..today. Training no less. MOre tomorrow. I promise.
The Yankees have traded Alfonso Soriano and the G.N.P. for Alex Rodriguez. Now, they already have Derek Jeter at shortstop, so they'll move A-Rod to 3rd base. PErsonally, I think The New Guy is better defensively, but when the current shortstop has a few World Series Championship rings....well, he gets seniority at the position.
So now the Yankees have a hole at 2nd base to fill, but have the best SS/3B tandem in all of baseball, whether it be offensvely or defensively. He'll need some time to adjust to 3rd base, but his athleticism will cover it up well. So the Yankees have just bought themselves another title, right?
Not necessarily. They picked up the MVP of the league and quite a bit of payroll to boot. The payroll doesn't matter, other than teh expectations that come with it. And they know better than anyone the pressure that Steinbrenner brings to the situation. Winning isn't going to be fun, anymore. It'll be a relief that they didn't fail. IF tehy don't fail. They're weak in the outfield. They desperately need a centerfielder who can cover ground (like say...our own Torii Hunter), along with a 2nd baseman. Maybe they have someone in the minors or maybe they have another trade to address that. But 1st base isn't a defensive haven for the Yanks either. So remember....pull the ball to the right when playing the Yanks.
Add to the idea that their pitching staff is a mishmash of proven, but aging and brittle pitchers. They've proven themselves in other markets, but this is New York,and I dont think many of them have had to prove themselves under such a harsh spotlight with so much at stake.
That said, they have so much top end talent, it'll be hard not to win. They've go their warts, but they've bought themselves into the team to beat.
What is more troubling is that even with the (ha ha ) restrictions that baseball has placed on teams, the Yankees are STILL going out and buying or trading for whomever they want with no regard for their own payroll or anyone elses. THe luxury tax that baseball put into place during the lastbargaining agreement was supposed to get all teams closer to a level playing field. It hampered the larger market teams for the most part, at least temporarily. But the Yankees have proven again that they are on a different level. The agreement made them limp, but it didn't break their legs like some hoped, and bring them back to the pack.
The only hope for other teams is to continually develop talent, and hope to get a few lucky breaks once they get to the playoffs. However, once that talent grows and matures...if it's any good it'll most likely end up in New York, and they'll reap the benefits. What does this tell the players? If you are any good at all, at some point in your career you''ll play for the Yankees.
Sidenote: I'm sure some part of this deal happened because Steinbrenner wanted to prove that he could do what the Red Sox could NOT in getting a successful trade for A-Rod.
Finished the taxes. Looks as though we're getting a decent return. Unfortunately because of this and that and the other thing, it's pretty much already spent. I have to say, the people at TurboTax have done a great job of turning out a great product. I completed the taxes in just a few days, and that was only because I was working on it a little bit here and a little bit there. And e-filing is great...just direct deposit straight into the account and we are set in 10-16 days. I tried a few times to do it myself with the forms, and realized quickly it only led to madness. So we went to a tax accountant. $150 to have him do all the work, while we had to sit and answer his questions over a 2 hour period with a rambunxious (sp) daughter. No no no. This will NOT do. So I spend $75 on Turbo Tax Fed and State, forget to mail in the rebates to get $20-30 of it back, and spend another $25 of my refund to file electronically.
Hmmmm......
At least this way I get the illusion that it's saving me a huge amount of cash. And with the software, it's easy enough that you could ALMOST classify it as fun. Not QUITE there, but still enough to know that I don't dread the process. And when you only claim 2 dependants when you actually have 5, you can generally expect a refund rather than having to pay in.
Valentine's Day went well. The neighborhood Nanny's mom took the kids for the late-afternoon/night so that we could be a couple again. Or for the first time. It's so hard to remember these days. We were able to go shopping and talk about anything or nothing without being interuppted with the "MomIwant"s or "Shehitme"s or "baba"s. Heck, just being able to talk without being interuppted! We could go into a store without worrying about steering a stroller, or wrangling kids, or who has what child with them. We could look at topics in the bookstore that rated higher than PG.
What I gues I am saying is that we were left to simply enjoy each other's company without being interefered.
We came home and ate a steak dinner, and watched a movie togeather. (Under the Tuscan Sun...very chick-flick-ish. Woman divorces, fears of getting caught in an emotional downslide so she buys a villa in Italy on a whim, and works on fixing it up. On the way to rehabilitating her outlook on life she meets an italian man, has what seems to be meaningful sex with him, and then doesn't see him for another 3 or 4 or 5 weeks. And then complains when she tracks him down to find out he's moved on. That happens when you give the brush-off. Anyway, I found it to be a rather unfulfilling story, but maybe other people liked it more than I. ) It wasn't an ornate affair, but it suited us fine. Hopefully you found yours as contented as ours was.
2nd sidenote: I drank 2 large fruit smoothies on Saturday to no avail. That will mean something to those that know what I'm referring to. All that healthy goodness, and nothing to show for it. What a ripoff! (NO, not really.)
OK, THE ISSUE REVIEW:
OK, first off how to handle this...do I go page by page offering commentary on each individual one? That would seem to be rather tediou reading for yor part, and ould probably require you to have a copy yourself. Since not all of my readers have (or approve of) a copy, I'll just offer some highlights throughout.
first, we ahve the cover, featuring Veroniva Varekova looking over her shoulder, playfully chastizing us for taking such an interest in the bow placed on her hind end. Or for the fact that we're drooling over ourselves as she holds her bikini top in her hand. V (short for Veronica, but here at the UPdate, since we're so close to her, we just call her V) is very appealing, and quite sexy. However, we've seen better covers than this, so we are not yet impressed. There are promises of a Hall of Fame, and Anna Kournikova within the issue.
More than likely, threre won't be a single thing that remotely resembles sports within this issue.
And don't tell me that Anna plays tennis, because she doesn't. She might pose with a racket in a tennis outfit now and then, but I hardly believe what she does is considered playing tennis.
Since we're on the subject, I have to say Anna K is one of the most over-rated girls I've ever seen hyped. Cute, but certainally not the hottest girl I've ever seen. I realize I'm in the minority on this, but she justdoesn;t make me sit up and take notice. She's not even the hottest girl tennis player I've ever seen! That'd be the first version of Jennifer Capriati, if you're curious.
Then again, it's not like Anna K is as bad as Martina was. Or that woman who faced off against the guy back in the70's as some sort of women's rights movement. Diane Keaton, I think it was. No no. Wait. Lily Tomlin. Yeah, the incredible shrinking woman. Yeah, that's it.
There are some bios presented of the photographers and the assistants and what not. BLah blah blah. I'll read these at some point, but not right now. Currently, it's just wasted space that could be used for Rebecca Romjin. And don't bother to correct me about adding on the Stamos part. Daily Update law does not recognize that particular claim of marriage. Ah, finally at the models bios on page 17. May Anderson is one from theNetherlands, who suggest we should visit Denmark, since everyone allegedly is as gorgeous as she is. Riiiiiight.
Ana Beatriz Barros is Brazilian, though so far I haven't found a picture that confirms that in this magazine. (In addition to being her nationality, it's either a type of wax or cut, but if you don't know what that means, I wouldn't advise looking it up at work. ) If having her on your arm wasn't enough to make you feel like the luckiest bastard on the planet, then be sure to note that she is obsessive compulsive about cleaning her home, and that she loves to bowl, despite never breaking 100. Don't worry guys! She won't challenge your masculinity in bowling!
A personal favorite, Elsa Benitez is up next. Again refusing to acknowledge her marriage certificate (thisone to to a former NBA player), ELsa has a rather acute sense of foreboding that saved her life. Turns out that she was supposed toget on a plane in '96 in Washington DC. She had a terrible feeling taht something was going to happen, and broke down in tears. She intentionally missed her flight, and it exploded shortly after takeoff.
Yamila Diaz Rahi follows, and likes to "Blame it on the Basa Nova" the dance of love. Another Daily Update Favorite, she was in a commercial with a geeky guy and some GE appliances. Oh, to be her GE washer with an unbalanced load on the spin cycle.
Bridget Hall is a pretty, blond Cowboys fan, who would like to play the Glenn CLose character from Fatal Attraction. 'Nuff said.
We also have local girl Melissa Keller, who originally hails from Long Lake MN. Bad: 9 tatoos. It's ok for a girl to have 1 or 2, but....sooner or later the tatoos make you look a bit skanky. Worse: one of the tatoos is an electric GREEN lightning bolt. Yeesh... GOOD: Former Pannekoeken waitress. Pannekoeken is a resteraunt and a food, the latter of which resembles something similar to a dutch baby or a pancake, though with a bit more egg. YOu typically top it with fruit or sugar or something similar. One wonders if the same could be said for Melissa. Better: Melissa is not flat as a pannekoeken.
Neomie Lenoir replacing her mom as her idol with Angelina Jolie. She also listens to Norah Jones. She also is French. None of these things matter to me, since I'll never meet her. So I'll just admire from a distance.
Marissa Miller is a blond woman all of 24, and she knows how to throw a football. Even better, she plays volleyball and basketball. She also apparently wears little clothing. All pluses towards becoming the perfect mate.
Angela Lindvall currently lives on a tugboat on the Hudson River in New York. Having never been there, I can only imagine what it's like. That said, it sounds like a terribly cold palce in the winter. Surrounded not only by freezing win on all sides, but also by freezing water on the bottom of the dwelling as well. OH,that's right. I forgot. The nuclear waste in the river keeps it warm, and that neon glow must provide a keen night light for her 2 year old son!
oops. Midnight-20 and I have work tomorrow. Err..today. Training no less. MOre tomorrow. I promise.
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