One Giant Leap

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I was recently brought on board the team at The Bronx View, a great site dedicated to podcasts and blogs focused on the New York Yankees and baseball in general.

I encourage you to go to their site and check out my recent activities.

Click Here to listen to the podcast announcing my joining of The Bronx View team, and discussing my background, some Yankees memories and 2010 projections, and my upcoming column for the site: The Bill of Rights & Wrongs.

And Click Here to read the first installment of The Bill of Rights & Wrongs, released today.

I'm looking forward to having another outlet to shock and offend unsuspecting readers and to generally lower the standards of journalism.  I've had a hard enough time keeping this blahg as current as I would like, but I will try to juggle both commitments and put up new posts regularly.

I hope you like the new column and, if you're a Yankee fan, check out the rest of The Bronx View website.  It's put together by smart and informed guys that really know their stuff.

The say real journalists need a good sign-off, so I'm going to be trying some out over the next few weeks.

Goodnight and Good Luck....and Go F Yourself,
Blah, Blah, Blahg!

I know, I know.  I haven't posted a new blahg for 2 weeks.  I'm sorry, but I have excuses.

Reason #1
My computer is in critical condition and potentially dead due to a virus I got while downloading files from Limewire.  Beware the 'Dr. Guard' virus.  It is one angry bitch.  It all started when my lovely and generous wife surprised me with a new iPod (160G!) and I decided to start downloading some songs I'd been meaning to steal for quite some time....but as my 30G iPod was full, I was in no rush to pilfer.  Early into my indiscretions, Dr. Guard latched on to my machine like a sorority girl with lockjaw and brought my computer to a nosediving crash.  Luckily, all of my important files are backed up on an external hard-drive.  The real frustration is that I haven't even had a chance to upload files to the new iPod, so it remains as unused and untouched as an alter girl.

Lesson learned: When stealing files, use my wife's computer.

An IT guy at Lindsey's office is in the process of trying to help me over the phone, but he's been less than responsive over the past few days.  So until I speak with him again, I really won't know the fate of my almost 10 year old computer.

Reason #2
I have a new blog starting very soon.  A friend of mine from many years ago approached me to contribute to his website.  His site, The Bronx View, is focused on the New York Yankees and general baseball related articles, blogs and podcasts.  Evidently, he was looking for fresh and exciting writers to be featured on his site because he emailed me and said "Hey, we need someone to increase the number of dick jokes on our website".  I said, "I'm your man".   I'll let you know when the new blog (entitled: "The Bill of Rights and Wrongs") debuts.  Should be in just a few days.  My features won't necessarily be focused on baseball or the Yankees, but I'll probably weave them in to some aspect from time to time.

HEALTH UPDATE
I had mentioned early on in my Blahging that I would keep you all up to date as to my health status, as I had recently been diagnosed with hypertension and general fat-assedness.

Since going on daily blood pressure medication, I'm happy to report that my blood pressure has improved from 140/100 to 130/90.  The latest blood pressure reading was taken a few weeks ago, so hopefully it's improved even further.  Still some work to do, but any improvements are good from where I'm sitting.  Following these improved pressure levels I had to undergo a stress test to see if there was any heart disease active in my system.  Thankfully there is not.  Everything looks good.  My weight, however, can still use some focus.  I definitely haven't settled in to a daily exercise regiment, so the pounds are pretty much in a holding pattern.  I really do mean to create an exercise routine that I can stick to in the upcoming week.  Does anybody have any suggestions?  I tried something called the "Milkshake Diet" last week.  The quantity I ingested of these delicious concoctions left me bloated and lethargic, and seems to have led to a drastic case of lactose intolerance.  Now I see where the weight loss aspect plays into the "diet".

This has really just been a post to let you all know that I am aware of my lack of Blahg activity lately, and that I'll be more focused on this and my other blog in the next week.  I'll let you all know when The Bill of Rights and Wrongs is live.

In the mean time, I'd like to ask you all for any album and/or book recommendations that you'd like to see reviews of in the upcoming weeks.  I'm currently in the midst of putting a review together for Shutter Island (the movie), and I should be finishing the George Carlin autobiography Last Words shortly.  So I'm anxious to hear any suggestions of new albums and books to focus my attention on.

Also, my next blahg entry will likely be a recounting and reflection of a recent drunken adventure I had with my friend Adam in NYC a few weeks ago.  The drunken evening include dozens of beers, urinating in sinks, puking in buckets and the dehumanizing of a cab driver....and those are just some of Adam's activities.

Sorry again for my lack of updates.  It won't happen again.

Until next time,
Blah, Blah, Blahg!

On September 4, 2009 my wife and I got married.  It was a wonderful day with it's typical ups and downs, drama and comedy relief.  It was the best day of my life.  That was 6 months ago.  The ink is barely dry on our marriage license.  But now, due to a dirty little secret I just uncovered, I have to wonder if we'll make it a full year.  This is not a joke. 

My wife is cheating on me.

Six months ago, I serenaded her to 'Fly Me To The Moon'.  Had I known then what I know now, perhaps I would have chosen the song 'These Boots Are Made For Walking', or 'Your Cheatin' Heart'.  Or maybe, I should have just walked away.  Because today, I don't think I know her anymore.  I hesitate to say that I may not even want to know her.  But that sadly seems to be the truth.  ("Truth"....recognize that word Lindsey?)  Maybe it's just the hurt talking.  Maybe that's my pride trying to steady my legs after being kneecapped by deception.  They say you never see it coming, but that would never be me.  I'm an intelligent and grounded guy.  I can see people for what they really are.  You can't get one over on me.  Nope.  Not me.  Never, never, never.....
That's what I used to think.

...But then I looked on her computer.

I'm not a jealous person.  I'm not overbearing.  I'm not controlling.
I am trustworthy and trusting, and therein lies my downfall.  Perhaps I need to start doubting others, questioning their motives and morals.  Because there's no other way to say it - I've been had.  I've been made to look like a fool, and worst of all, I have the evidence to prove it (if it comes to the point that I need to prove it).

A dirty little secret becomes a filthy and sickening reality, a life-changer, when you see it in black & white.  I didn't go into her computer to investigate anything or to confirm any suspicions.  I was ignorantly happy and naive until her laptop spilled its guts.  And then there it was.  And here I am.  And I'm devastated.

HOW CAN YOU LOOK AT YOURSELF LINDSEY?!?!

There I was, sitting in Barnes & Noble, doing some work outside of the apartment to get a change of scenery.  So I took her laptop with me.  Got a cup of coffee and powered on Pandora's Box.

I was going to login to Facebook, so I just clicked on the little arrow to the right of the web address field, knowing that she surely visited that site recently.  (Anyone who knows Lindsey knows why this was more of a certainty than an assumption).  Little did I know that Facebook is what actually led to her indiscretion.  As soon as I clicked that arrow, her recently visited websites appeared....and there it was:

Scrabble Helper - Literati Word Builder
www.WINEVERYGAME.com

A few weeks ago, Lindsey and I started playing Scrabble online via Facebook.  A harmless game.  Friendly competition.  We even joked: "We are such an old married couple, playing Scrabble".  Little did I know that Lindsey's definition of an old married couple was a relationship in which one person honorably and innocently participates in life with a snake.

I suppose I should have seen it coming.  All the signs were there.  Let me paint the picture for you.

February 23, 2010:  Game 1
Billy - 252
Lindsey - 199

February 25, 2010: Game 2
Billy - 299
Lindsey - 164

March 1, 2010: Game 3
Billy - 360
Lindsey - 166

Games 4 and 5 had similar results, but Lindsey was starting to score in the 200's.  And I think my jokes and jabs about her consistent use of 3 and 4-letter words were starting to aggravate her.  So much so that I started to see larger words being used which helped to take her scores into the mid-200's.  Words like 'oocyte' and 'merino' starting racking up some decent points.  'Good for her', I thought, 'I sure am enjoying these fair and competitive matches'.

And then she got greedy.

Game 7 included such gems from Lindsey as 'ozonise', 'pulsant', and my personal favorite, 'faqir'.  After these turns I actually said to her, "Wow!  Nice one.  That's a great word".  To which Cheaty McCheats-alot replied, "Yeah, I just threw some letters together to see if they'd work".  At one point she had a 40-50 point lead.  Towards the end of the game I was able to bring the match to a respectable 1 point defecit, with Lindsey ultimately winning 280-to-272.  She very graciously said, "You did a great job of coming back", and won with seeming grace and class.  I hope she was silently wracked with guilt and shame.

So now, I am forced to decide if I shall continue to play with the crooked liar that is my wife.

FYI - We are in the early stages of a new game in which her last turn awarded her 14 points for the word 'ohia'.

I'm curious Lindsey, if you had the following tiles, what word could you form?:
TRAHEEC

For now, I'm going to go about my other Scrabble games with honor and dignity and attempt with all of my might to save this marriage which has been sullied and defiled by infidelity and foul play.

Lindsey, you are so busted!

Hbla, Lbah, Blahg!