It's Been Such a Long Time...

.. I think I should be blogging.

With apologies to Boston (the band), I should either shut this thing down or actually make an effort to keep it updated. So. Here goes.

The Taxes Update

Lots of fun stuff has happened since the last update - we had Wesley "don't call me Wellesley, Jack Williams" Snipes sentenced to 3 years for criminal tax fraud. He is appealing. (obvious joke - his lawyers are also filing an appeal in his case. Heh).

What else? Oh yeah, the silly gas tax holiday. Real cute idea. Doesn't stand a chance of passing congress anyway. Wouldn't result in a reduction in gas bills more than a few dollars a month. I've been a full-on Hillary supporter throughout this process (see this for my initial long-winded concerns with Obama), but between this, her exploitation of the Wright issue, her cribbing famous Holocaust poems as anti-trade riffs... not much left there to like.

Except Chelsea. Mmmm.

That's it on taxes for now. Superficial I know. More detail will be forthcoming if I can manage to update this blog more than once every 3 months.

The Baseball Update

When I get my shit together, I'll post some pictures from opening day at Fenway. It was tremendous. Meanwhile, the Sox have been mainly as advertised, although it feels like they are on the verge of breaking out and having a nice 7 or 8 game winning streak, it hasn't happened yet. Only worrisome spots so far:

-- middle relief. Only Okajima has been really dependent. Delcarmen, Timlin, Hansen. Where's the second arm to pitch the 7th and 8th innings?

-- Dice-K. The command has been troubling all year, but he's just flat out getting lucky now. He happened to be pitching against a not-very-selective team last night (only Sheff, Ordonez and Guillen are particularly selective in that lineup), which bailed him out. Still, long-term, he's not going to be successful with a 1.5:1 K:BB ratio.

-- Ortiz. He seems to be coming around, but a chronic knee injury that doesn't seem to respond to surgery, treatment, days off is cause for concern.

That's about it. The other "disappointments" - Lugo, Drew, well we knew what we were expecting there, didn't we?

The Death Update

Taxwife has had a rough month. She lost both her grandfathers in April. One expected (cancer). One not. She is usually extraordinarily reserved and this was no exception. It is a tough thing - knowing "how to act", especially if you are the kind of person who worries about that on a daily basis. She was very strong through both services. Her grandfather (mom's dad) had an amazing turnout at his wake (or viewing hours). I learned many things I didn't know about him - president of local rotary club, many business connections in town - this was a guy who wasn't extraordinarily "connected", but a good man who naturally made friends and put people at ease.

But that made me think - why is it that there is always some surprise, some secret that we learn of people when they pass away. It's often something quite mundane, not the "he once killed a man for snoring too loud" kind of secret. Obviously everyone has aspects of their life and character and works that they want to keep secret, but these are often little nuggets of a person's character that you'd expect some people to wear as badges of honor. I don't have a ready example except for Taxwife's grandfather, who had these business connections and relationships, and all these friends who came out, but who was the most unassuming guy you'd meet. Something I found interesting. No more, no less.

That's it for tonight. More light stuff tomorrow hopefully. Take care.