Multiply 365 Day 182 - TITIT #13 Fingerpainting with words

There really will be no rhyme or reason to this blog, so if someone is looking for a theme or purpose they are going to be sadly mistaken. Instead ladies and gentlemen it is time once again for Things I Think I Think

It has only taken 5 and half years (and then some) but the change meter has finally broken the $300 mark. Yes, another productive month, gathering in a tidy little $8.28 and the new total sits at $303.75.

So the Minnesota state government shut down today. Maybe it is the cynic in me, after all I have very little grasp on Minnesota state politics, but why does this feel more like a grab for an extra day off during a holiday weekend than an actual budget crisis?

A sting operation involving Chris Hansen? Excuse me if it slightly warms the cockles of my heart that this time it was Hansen himself who was the object of the sting operation as he got busted fucking around on his wife. Mr. Hansen, that knocking on the door is the Boy Scouts, they would like their morality merit badge back.

The new jobs responsibilities? All I can say is it is what it is. In the long run it doesn't look like it will be all that complicated, just time consuming. The plus is that I now get to take the laptop to work and listen to Pandora at my desk. And more money. After all, it is always about the dinero.

I am not sure I am liking the start of the free agent period for the Pittsburgh Penguins. After toying with the idea of bringing back Jaromir Jagr to the Pens, instead day one saw the Pens lose out on a chance at his services, as well as losing the services of Max Talbot and Mike Rupp, only getting Steve Sullivan back in return. Even if both Malkin and Crosby come back at 100% to start next season, the teams glaring weakness is the same as it was last year, ample scoring from their wingers and that issued hasn't been addressed yet. Sure there is still time to tackle that issue, but when your first big free agent signing is an injury prone person on the downside of his career, it is not what one would consider an overall improvement.

The baseball season is now at the halfway point for the Pittsburgh Pirates. After 81 of 162 games Pittsburgh has a record of 41-40. In most cities this would not be something to crow about, but when the Pirates have had 18 consecutive losing seasons then this qualifies as a vast improvement. It remains to be sen if they can keep this up over the second half of the season, on one hand their hitting has vastly underperformed but their pitching has overperformed, so maybe this is the year that the streak gets broken. But I am not running out to buy my Bucco tickets just yet.

Mitch McConnell is an idiot. The Senator wants a balanced budget amendment attached to the United States Constitution. Or at least so he claims now. After all he was the Senator of the great state of Kentucky when Republican presidents were running up massive deficits (all the way back to Reagan for those playing the home version) and nary was a single word uttered from the lips of the fine upstanding man from Kentucky during those times. Nor is there even the slightest possibility for this notion passing, this is nothing more than grandstanding in lieu of actually doing ones job . Does anyone out there really think that McConnell plans to go all the way with this? To muster a two thirds majority in both the House and Senate and then take this idea on a tour of the states, where he only needs 3/4ths of the states to ratify it before it would actually be tacked on to the Constitution (see that School House Rocks stuff did pay off as a kid), or is it more about McConnell showing how “tough” he is on the administration by running his mouth for a couple of headlines, then not to be seen again until the next crisis comes along. I get it Senator McConnell, you are the guy that is going to show the administration how much you are working for the American people, but until you have the balls to see that whole process through rather than just grandstanding about it, sit down and shut the fuck up.

I think I am suffering from Cuban sandwich burnout. Ed threw me $20 to buy dinner tonight, and I went the Cuban route, yet I couldn't even eat the whole thing, so either my stomach has officially shrunk (three people in the last week said I looked like I had lost weight to which I said “Where did it go? It was just here”) or I am finally tired of the Cubany goodness. I really hope it is the former and not the latter.

Well I have a big holiday weekend, just not the vacationing variety. I have to place orders for two stores tomorrow and paperwork, lots of paperwork, plus I want to be up to watch the Wimbledon women's final so I am going to call it a night. So for now we are done here.